


Clan of Three

by DominusLucario



Category: The Mandalorian (TV), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: BAMF Hatsume Mei, BAMF Midoriya Izuku, BAMF Yaoyorozu Momo, DARKNESS!, Dadzawa, Dead Midoriya Inko, Dead basically all parents, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Friends to Lovers, Hatsume Mei & Midoriya Izuku are Best Friends, Hatsume Mei & Yaoyorozu Momo are Best Friends, Hero Student Hatsume Mei, Midoriya Izuku & Yaoyorozu Momo are Best Friends, Midoriya Izuku Does Not Have One for All Quirk, Midoriya Izuku is Smart, Multi, NO PARENTS!, Polyamory, Quirkless Midoriya Izuku, Some angst, U.A. is a University (My Hero Academia)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-23
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:14:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 53,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23814415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DominusLucario/pseuds/DominusLucario
Summary: Izuku Midoriya didn't have a quirk, that was true. What he did have, was his intelligence.When he hears about a competition organised by David Shield, he knew this was his chance to prove himself and to meet one of his idols.Using nothing but his own mind, his creations and his two best friends, he will become a hero that protects those that can't protect themselves.A Mandalorian/Star Wars inspired fic, partially inspired by Technocratic Dominion by Syber_Slash
Relationships: Hatsume Mei/Midoriya Izuku, Hatsume Mei/Midoriya Izuku/Yaoyorozu Momo, Hatsume Mei/Yaoyorozu Momo, Midoriya Izuku/Yaoyorozu Momo
Comments: 199
Kudos: 686





	1. The Innovation Initiative

It was a difficult life, being quirkless. 

It’d never been the easiest life even before Izuku was diagnosed as quirkless but it was a happy one at least. 

Izuku never liked that word. Diagnosed. Like it was a disease, like there was something wrong with him. 

Sure, he may not have been able to make explosions come out of his hands like Kacchan or even float things towards him like his mom. 

But he did have his own intelligence. 

From an incredibly early age, most people realised that Izuku was... different. More advanced than other kids his age. He could speak perfect Japanese by his first birthday and was speaking fluent English by his fourth. 

Before he saw the doctor that fateful day, people assumed he must have had an intelligence quirk, praising him for his mind and saying he’d no doubt go on to do great things. 

Then the diagnosis came, quirkless. 

Immediately, those same people who had once praised him, called him useless, worthless, a waste of space. 

None more so than his old best friend. 

Once upon a time, he called him Kacchan, Izuku told him it was because he struggled to say his name. That wasn’t true, he just thought it was a nice-sounding name for him. 

Not anymore, now he was Katsuki Bakugo, his personal tormentor. 

Everyone in his life suddenly wanted nothing to do with him... except his mom. She stood by him with everything she had. 

Ever since he knew what one was, Izuku wanted to be a hero, he looked up to the world’s great heroes like All Might and Endeavor but, even at his young age, he knew being a hero was more than that. 

He knew the ones that helped the heroes, the technicians, the inventors, the costume designers... 

They were heroes too in their own ways. 

So when he was told he was quirkless, everyone expected that dream to die. 

It didn’t. 

He went home that day and watched his favourite video once more, the footage of All Might’s debut years ago and he asked his mom if she thought he could be a hero, even knowing he was quirkless, he asked if he could still be a hero. 

It was one of the hardest questions Inko had ever been asked in her life. 

She loved her son more than life itself and she didn’t want him to be hurt... and she knew that was likely if he tried to become a hero given that he was quirkless. 

So at first, she didn’t answer. 

Then, days later, she was watching the news after Izuku had gone to bed. They spoke about the death of a hero, a relatively new one, but a skilled and popular one. He had a powerful quirk but he was caught off guard and had been stabbed to death. 

He wasn’t even on duty, he was just on a night out with his friends and got in an argument with the wrong person. 

At first, Inko saw this as proof, of course, Izuku wouldn’t be safe as a hero. 

But then she thought harder on it, and she realised what it was really proof of. 

Nobody was ever really safe, quirkless or not. Nobody could ever be completely safe, she could never completely protect her son... it was just impossible. 

As much as she hated to think about it, she realised that Izuku could die tomorrow. She could be taking him to school and he could die in a car crash because someone was distracted at the wheel. 

He could die twenty years from now from a preventable disease. 

He could die eighty years from now peacefully, surrounded by family. 

The point was, nobody, quirked or quirkless, was ever completely safe, even the best heroes in the world. 

So why should she tell her son to give up on his dream after that? 

The next morning, she sat Izuku down at the kitchen table and answered ‘Yes’. 

She told him she thought he could be a hero and she’d support him with everything she had if that’s truly what he wanted. 

While Izuku was an optimist, he was also a realist. He knew determination alone wouldn’t make him a hero, especially without a quirk. 

But really, he didn’t need one. 

After all, humans didn’t need quirks for around ten thousand years. 

Humans didn’t use quirks to build the great pyramids, the Hagia Sofia or the statue of liberty. 

Humans didn’t use quirks to invent vaccines, discover penicillin, DNA or cure many of the world's diseases. 

Humans barely even used quirks to build I-island, the most technologically advanced wonder of science in the modern world. 

All of that was created by nothing more than the human mind. 

So Izuku would use his mind to become a hero. 

With this in mind, Izuku spent the next few years studying voraciously. Anything that could possibly help him become a hero, he attacked with a savagery that nobody would have expected from the timid green-haired little boy. 

He read about Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Law, Programming, Metalwork, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. 

But most of all? He studied robotics. 

He didn’t know what it was, but robotics just made sense to him, it clicked for him in a way that nothing else had ever done before. 

And so, with what little spare money Inko had to hand, she would help Izuku in his endeavours, buying old machines and appliances from charity shops or garage sales. 

Despite this, it wasn’t quite enough for Izuku. 

That was what led him to start scavenging from several local scrapyards and dumping grounds, particularly, Dagobah beach, which was an unofficial dumping ground for anyone who wanted to illegally dispose of things. 

Over the years, Izuku tinkered and disassembled all kinds of things, poking in their insides, figuring out how they worked. 

Then, when he was eight years old, he had just returned home from another day of school. He pulled his sleeve further down his arm, making sure his bruised wrist was hidden. 

Bakugo had cornered him on his out of school again today. This time he just twisted his wrists rather than using his quirk on him luckily... 

It still hurt though. 

Shaking his head, he opened the door, calling out to his mom as he entered. “Hi mom, I'm home” he called out cheerfully. 

Inko’s head appeared at the end of the corridor with a wide grin on her face, “Hi Izuku, come have a look at this” she replied, waving him over eagerly. 

Izuku nodded, removing his shoes quickly and scampering over to her. She handed him a piece of paper and he began to read. 

“One of my co-workers gave me that today” she explained, “She said it sounded like your kind of thing” 

Izuku began to grin excitedly as he read. 

It was a flyer for a competition. 

It was called, ‘The Innovation Initiative’ and it was run by David Shield himself. 

Yeah, that David Shield, the one who lives on I-island and who made All Might all of his support gear and costumes. 

He was practically the All Might in the world of inventors. 

The competition was a worldwide one apparently aimed at children and teens younger than sixteen. They wanted people to send in pictures and videos of things they’d created, things that can help people. 

The top three winners would win a month-long all-expenses paid trip to I-island, where they’d meet David Shield and would be taken on tours of the many labs and workshops of the technological wonderland. 

Izuku was practically drooling with excitement at the very idea of going there, he had just as many pictures of David Shield and his creations as he did All Might in his room. 

Taking a minute to calm down again, he read through once more. 

He had just under a year to invent something that would get him noticed, something to give him a chance at winning this competition. 

He grinned widely, the slightly manic look appearing in his eyes that Inko recognised as inspiration. 

She also knew that meant the next few months were going to be very busy, and very loud. 

Over the last few years, Izuku had managed to piece together a set of tools and equipment. Some of it was bought by his mom as presents, some he managed to find and repair from the scrapyards and some he just made himself. 

There wasn’t a day that went by over the next eight months where those tools went unused. 

The only times Izuku left his room were to go to school, the bathroom, to eat or to acquire more materials. 

He’d often work late into the night, struggling to stay awake at school the next day. Not like that really mattered that much anyway, he’d technically already graduated, he had done years before, he still just attended more as a courtesy and for him to have the chance to socialize. 

He put up with it as best he could, more for his mom’s sake than his own, she still didn’t know the extent of what he went through at school, she’d probably pull him out if she did but Izuku never told her, he didn’t want her to worry, he could handle it anyway. 

As much as the other kids disliked him due to his quirklessness, it was only the brave ones that messed with him. Due to his constant scavenging and mechanical work, he was a lot stronger than most kids his age. 

For the most part, it was just Bakugo and his two cronies that messed with him, the rest of the school being slightly wary of him, due to the fact that if he ever decided to fight back, he’d probably win, quirk or no quirk. 

He never did though, he just took his abuse silently, barely even showing reactions anymore. This was mainly because he was lost in thought, planning his next steps towards his creation. 

Finally, with only a month left until the competition deadline, Izuku finished. 

He brought it out into the living room as soon as he’d done to show his mom. She’d always respected his distance, especially when he got focused on what he was doing, she learned the hard way that he didn’t even notice anything else around him when he got in the zone. 

“MOM!” he shouted happily, “IT’S DONE!” 

Inko had been sat on the couch, nearly falling asleep. She quickly snapped awake at her son’s sudden shout. “Huh? What’s done Izuku?” she asked, slightly disorientated. 

“Spark, he’s done!” Izuku replied happily. 

Inko nodded slowly, “Okay... what’s Spark?” she asked, still confused. 

Izuku just grinned, “He’s my drone I invented, I called him Spark” he replied, holding up the machine in his hands. 

Its main body was relatively small, maybe about ten inches wide by seven tall. It had two yellow led lights as eyes, one on each side of its front-facing side and what was probably a camera between them. 

It had four arms coming from it in each diagonal direction, each connecting to a rotor. 

**(It’s basically a Gremlin from XCOM 2)**

Izuku gently placed it on the floor, pressed a switch on the back and it came to life. 

Its yellow eyes lit up and began looking around the room. As it did so, its rotors activated and it took flight, hovering about five feet in the air, a little bit above Izuku’s head. 

As it hovered around, it made a series of bleeping noises that almost sounded curious or intrigued 

Izuku grinned happily and waved at it, getting its attention. “Hey Spark” he said excitedly. 

Spark bleeped in surprise and lowered itself to Izuku’s eye level, its own led eyes meeting his. 

It examined him curiously for a moment before flaps over the LEDs closed for a second, almost like it had closed its eyes and it shook around in the air slightly, emanating a series of happy sounding boops. 

Izuku grinned happily, “Nice to meet you too Spark, I'm Izuku, I'm the one that built you” 

Spark gave a few confused sounding beeps. 

Izuku nodded, “Yeah, I built you by myself, why wouldn’t you think that?” 

A few more beeps. 

Izuku looked shocked for a second, “I’m too young? Who are you to talk? You’re only about two minutes old” 

Spark bounced up and down in the air and made a few amused sounding beeps. 

Inko was just staring at this apparent exchange with her mouth wide open. She’d hoped Izuku would do well with whatever he was doing... she never expected him to make something like this, let alone give it a personality that he could apparently understand. 

Izuku smiled and patted the top of Spark’s main body, the drone letting out a single happy beep as he did. 

“Thanks Spark, I know I made you... but I hope we can be friends” Izuku said, smiling happily at his creation. 

Spark made a series of quick bleeps before flying around the room... happily? Inko thought. Spark then returned to his place in front of Izuku and bounced up and down. 

Ah right, that was its way of nodding. 

Izuku nodded and smiled at it before turning to face Inko. “And this is my mom, say hi Spark” Izuku instructed. 

Spark obliged, hovering up nearer to Inko and happily bleeping in her face, its eyes flashing as it did so. 

Izuku giggled, “He says hi, his name’s Spark just so you know” he translated. 

Inko took a second to calm down before smiling at the robot and nodding slightly. “Hello there Spark, I'm Inko, nice to meet you” she greeted, not at all expecting this to be how her day went. 

Spark spun around and bleeped at Izuku. He thought for a second before nodding, “Yeah... I guess so” he answered. 

Inko looked at Izuku in confusion, “What did he just ask?” 

Izuku giggled, “He asked if I made him and you made me, does that make you his grandmother” 

Inko just thought for a second before bursting into a fit of giggles. 

The pair spent the next hour or so making a video for the competition, Izuku explaining the building process that went into making Spark and Spark showing its capabilities. 

As well as apparently being a sparkling conversationalist, Spark had two smaller arms beneath it that retract that can be used to lift and carry things up to a weight of 15kg, any more and the rotors give out. 

Izuku also demonstrated the feature that gave Spark his name. What Inko had previously thought was a camera turned out to be a homemade taser of sorts. According to Izuku, it fired out a jolt of electricity on command that was enough to temporarily immobilise someone for between two and five seconds but not enough to harm them. 

Obviously, he made this feature thinking of how it could be useful for heroism. 

So in one fell swoop, he had made a cute robot companion, one that can help with light labour and courier work and something that could potentially be used by heroes or police. 

Izuku spoke for so long Inko began to worry the camera would die before he finished his sales pitch. 

Eventually though, he wrapped up and they sent the video off to the competitions email address... 

All that was left to was wait. 

After nearly nine months of constant work, the apartment felt almost eerily silent while the Midoriya’s waited for the competition results. 

Izuku continued to tinker with Spark but didn’t make any major changes, just a few quality of life improvements for Spark, loosening up his joints a bit, making sure he was oiled regularly and that his makeshift power source was in good condition. 

Spark essentially ran off a miniaturised car battery that Izuku had scavenged and then modified. He could fly around for up to fourteen hours a day before needing to recharge. 

Despite Inko’s request, Izuku did not change Spark’s voice box, saying that he could understand him just fine and that it gave him character. Spark cheerfully bleeped in agreement. 

Then, finally, the results of the Innovation Initiative were announced... 

At least partially... 

Apparently, as well as being an incredible inventor and scientist, David Shield was a bit of a showman. 

At least, Izuku assumed that’s why he announced that the winners would be left to stew a little bit longer, only announcing that all three winners were from Japan. 

That at least gave Izuku a little bit of hope, that meant he was more likely to be one of them in that case. 

David announced that those in Japan that entered should be sat in front of their computers the next day at a specific time. Then, they would find out if they won or not. 

That of course meant that Izuku refused to leave his place until that time came. Inko eventually gave up trying to get him to go to bed, just putting a blanket over him and leaving him to sleep in front of the computer. 

Then, the next day, at 5 pm JST, a request for a video call appeared on the screen. 

Izuku immediately accepted the call, Spark appearing over his shoulder to stare intently at the screen. This was the reason he was created after all. 

Appearing on the screen was David Shield himself. 

“Hello there” he greeted cheerfully in flawless Japanese, “You are Izuku Midoriya correct?” 

Izuku nodded so quickly his face blurred. “Yes I am Mr Shield, I'm really happy to get a chance to speak to you” he responded, surprising the scientist by speaking in English. 

David recoiled for a second in surprise before an impressed grin split his face. “You can speak English?” he asked curiously. 

Izuku nodded, “Yeah, I learned by the time I was four” he answered proudly. 

David grinned, “Are either of your parents native English speakers?” he asked curiously. 

Izuku shook his head, “No, my mom’s Japanese... and I don’t know my dad” he replied a little bit sadly. 

David nodded, “Alright then, forgive my surprise, you’re the second one I’ve spoken to that could speak English” 

Izuku’s head turned to the side, “The second one? Did you speak to one of the winners before me?” 

David snapped his fingers and chuckled, “Oh right yeah, I knew there was something I forgot” he chuckled and cleared his throat for a moment before continuing. 

“Izuku Midoriya, I'm very happy to announce that you are the second-place winner of the Innovation Initiative” David announced with a wide smile. 

Izuku just stared at the screen in silence for a moment. Ever since he had answered the call, he never once thought he’d actually be one of the winners... he just thought David was letting him know he didn’t win in person... or over the screen but close enough. 

“I...I won?” Izuku gasped. 

David nodded, “You did, your drone... Spark I believe? Has been a hot topic of conversation among many of the scientists here, most of them struggled to believe you managed to build something like that out of scrap parts with cobbled together tools... and forgive me for asking... but you’re quirkless aren’t you?” 

Izuku looked down towards the ground sadly as Spark let out a mournful “Bwoo...”. “Yeah... I'm quirkless” he admitted. 

He heard a polite laugh come from the screen, “Hey, chin up buddy, that just makes it even more impressive that you managed to build that with no quirk at all, besides, my daughter is quirkless too... and between you and me, I think she’s the smarter one” he joked. 

Izuku giggled, looking back up at the screen with a small smile. “Thanks, Mr Shield... thanks for saying that” 

David smiled, “No problem buddy, now, is your mom there? I’ll need to go through some of the details with her to organise the trip” 

Izuku nodded, quickly springing from the chair and running to the kitchen to grab Inko. 

Without a word, Izuku just began dragging her towards the computer. Inko, not exactly being the strongest woman in the world, couldn’t stop her son from pulling her behind him. 

Once she saw the computer screen, she understood. 

The two Midoriyas saw Spark still hovering in front of the screen, attempting to have a conversation with David. 

Apparently unable to understand his bleeps and bloops, David just wore an amused smile as Spark tried to talk to him. 

Izuku called out to the screen, “Spark says thanks for starting the competition, he wouldn’t have been made otherwise” 

David chuckled and nodded, “That’s alright Spark, I’m happy me starting it resulted in something as incredible as you being made” 

Spark made a few happy bleeps before flying over to Izuku, lowering himself and resting on Izuku’s head. 

Inko walked over and took a seat at the computer introducing herself. While Inko could speak some English, she was not as fluent as Izuku so the two adults conversed in Japanese. 

Inko had long since accepted that Izuku was just smarter than her in every way so it didn’t bother her too much that her eight-year-old son could hold a conversation in another language while she couldn’t. 

Izuku retreated to his room with Spark for a while, letting the adults have their talk. 

He just lay down on the bed, Spark sitting next to him. 

Izuku was fully convinced he was dreaming and about to wake up... but he didn’t. This was real. 

He’d really done it. 

A while later, Inko walked into Izuku’s room and nearly collapsed onto the bed. “Wow... I... I can’t believe you did it Izuku” she gasped, surprised yet immensely proud. 

Izuku just beamed and patted Spark, “Neither can I” he admitted before bouncing up and down excitedly. “Go on, go on, what did he say?” 

Inko told him that all three of the winners and their parents would meet up at the Tokyo Airport in two weeks from now, they would be taken to I-island on a private jet where they would be met by David himself. He would then take them to their accommodations for the month and more details would be given then. 

And yes, he had said that Spark could come, to which the little drone bleeped happily. 

The next two weeks were the slowest of Izuku’s life. He was so excited for the trip he could have sworn that every day lasted at least a month. 

But then, finally, the awaited day arrived. 

Izuku and his mom were currently on their way to the airport in a car hired by I-island, Izuku practically vibrating in the seat from excitement. 

Inko was excited too, she didn’t quite understand all the sciency stuff that happened at I-island but she knew Izuku would absolutely love it and she had been assured there were things that she would find interesting too. 

After far too long in Izuku’s opinion, they arrived at the airport and were escorted to the lounge where they’d be staying until the plane was ready. 

It was only when they entered that Izuku realised that he’d be meeting the other two winners. 

Suddenly growing nervous, he walked in behind his mom, Spark hovering just behind him, mimicking his actions. 

Inko just smiled patiently and put a hand on Izuku’s shoulder, waiting for him to come back out. 

After a minute or so, he stepped around her legs and got his first look at the other two winners. 

They were both girls and looked to be about his age. 

One had bright pink dreadlocks and a pair of piercing yellow eyes that had a crosshair symbol on them. She also had the kind of energetic mania that Inko knew very well from her own son. Her parents both looked incredibly tired, Izuku assumed that she was a lot to handle. 

The other was quite a bit taller and more refined looking, she had beautiful raven black hair tied up in a long spiky ponytail. Her posture was much more upright than the other girls’. Both the girl and her parents were wearing what looked like very expensive high-end brand clothing. Inko had a sneaking suspicion that her mother’s handbag was worth more than her yearly rent payments. There was also another well dressed, older-looking man stood just behind them. 

As Izuku walked into sight, their attention was drawn to him as Spark let out a few confused beeps from behind him. 

The pink-haired girl grinned widely and strode over to him. “HEYA! YOU MUST BE THE ONE WHO CAME IN SECOND PLACE!” she greeted... very energetically. Izuku barely saw her parents just wince at her volume. 

He already sympathised for them if this was what she was normally like. 

Izuku nodded nervously, “Yeah... hi, I'm Izuku Midoriya” he introduced himself shyly. 

The pink-haired girl nodded, her grin not shifting in the slightest. “Great to meet you second-place, I came in third, name’s Mei Hatsume” she introduced herself as. 

The other girl took this opportunity to walk over and give Izuku a polite smile. “Nice to meet you too Midoriya, I am Momo Yaoyorozu, I came in first place” 

Izuku nodded and smiled at the pair. “How old are you two?” he asked. 

Mei, with her ever-present grin, barely batted an eyelid. “Eight” she replied cheerfully. 

Momo, however, looked scandalised, “Don’t you know it’s bad manners to ask a lady her age?” 

Izuku’s head tilted to the side and he looked confused, “But then how am I supposed to tell how old you are?” 

Momo froze for a second and began to blush, her dad quietly chuckling behind her. “...I’m eight too” she whispered. 

Izuku smiled and nodded, “Me too, how cool is that?” 

Mei nodded energetically while Momo was much more reserved yet still nodded in agreement. 

Mei immediately started intruding on Izuku’s personal space. “So? What did you build? What got you second place?” she asked. 

Spark took this opportunity to introduce himself, bleeping at Mei a few times and bouncing up and down in the air. 

Mei grinned, “Nice to meet you Spark, I'm Mei... wow... you’re really well put together” 

Momo looked shocked, “Wait... you could understand it?” 

Mei nodded, “Yeah, he said his name was Spark and asked what my name was” 

Momo just looked at the pink-haired girl for a few seconds before looking at Izuku. “Can you understand it too?” she asked. 

Izuku nodded, “Yeah, I built him after all” 

Mei was carefully examining Spark, circling the hovering robot and inspecting the bodywork. “Hmm, pretty good metalwork but a little bit rough” she commented. 

Izuku scratched the back of his head, “Yeah... I don’t exactly have many proper tools, I had to scavenge or make most of them” he admitted. 

Momo’s eyes widened in surprise, “Hold on a moment, you managed to build Spark and get in second place without proper tools?” 

Izuku nodded, “Yeah, he’s mainly built out of scrap pieces too, but I did my best to take care of everything as best I could” 

Momo nodded, apparently impressed. “Well done, you obviously deserve second place then” 

Izuku smiled proudly, blushing slightly at the compliment. “Thanks... so what did you make?” he asked. 

Momo smiled, “I used my quirk to invent a new kind of metal, it’s quite light but is very tough and incredibly heat and damage resistant, I called it Beskar” she explained proudly. 

Izuku’s eyes were wide open with excitement, “You used your quirk to do it? How? What’s your quirk?” he asked, a notebook appearing in his hands out of nowhere. 

Momo was slightly caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the notebook but was given a second to collect her thoughts as Spark handed Izuku a pen to write with. 

“My quirk is called Creation, it lets me use the lipids in my body to create anything I know the molecular structure of... I can basically-” 

“Use the fat in your body to make any object you want, I'm guessing only non-living matter though right?” Izuku finished, quickly writing in a new page in his notebook. 

Momo was slightly surprised he’d managed to understand her without her having to simplify it at all. 

Izuku was grinning widely as he jotted down potential uses for her quirk before he turned to Mei. “And what’s your quirk? I’m guessing it's to do with your eyes?” 

Mei nodded, pointing at the crosshairs in her eyes. “Yep, mine’s called Zoom, it lets me see really far away, I think my record was about three kilometres” 

Izuku continued to smile as he added that to a new page. “Thanks, your quirks are really cool” he said, closing his notebook. 

“So what’s yours?” Mei asked curiously. 

Izuku froze, he was really hoping he didn’t have to answer that. He looked down at the ground sadly and didn’t say anything. 

Momo tilted her head to the side, “Are you alright Midoriya?” she asked, concerned. 

Izuku nodded and sniffled quietly, “Yeah... I don’t have one... I'm quirkless” he admitted. 

He clenched his eyes shut, waiting for the jeering to start. 

“Wow really? So you managed to build Spark without using any kind of quirk? That’s awesome” Mei exclaimed. 

Izuku was not prepared for this eventuality. 

Momo nodded in agreement, “Indeed, I only managed to do what I did because I had my quirk, it’s incredible you came in second with no quirk at all” 

This... this was a new experience. People who didn’t immediately mock, bully and scorn him because of his quirklessness. 

He didn’t know how to handle this so he did what he always did when things got tough. 

He started crying. 

For once though, these were tears of happiness, not sadness. 

He felt Spark gently bumping against his arm affectionately, making concerned beeping noises as his mom knelt and rested a hand on his head, gently stroking his hair. 

It took a minute for Izuku to calm down enough to look at the two girls again, they were both just looking at him with concerned expressions. 

“Sorry... normally people start hating me when I tell them I'm quirkless” he explained, wiping his face dry. 

Mei looked up at him, her head tilted to the side slightly, her expression not in its grin for once, instead, she looked sad. 

“You don’t have any friends do you?” she asked softly. 

Izuku just closed his eyes and shook his head. 

He then felt Mei wrap her arms around him and squeeze him tightly. 

He didn’t know what her parents were feeding her but it was clearly working, this girl was seriously strong. 

“Well you do now, we’re gonna be your friends” Mei replied, her words leaving no room for doubt. 

Momo just nodded along from the side, not quite sure what to do in this situation either, settling for just gently holding his hand for a second before removing it. 

Once again, happy tears began to flow down Izuku’s face. 

He could barely believe where he was, he had come second place in a worldwide competition, he was on his way to I-island to meet David Shield himself and he’d just made two new friends. 

Ones that apparently didn’t care about his lack of a quirk and wanted to be friends anyway. 

As he dried his face once more, he looked out the window at the plane waiting for them and thought to himself, ‘This is going to be the best trip ever’ 

If only he knew how wrong he was... 


	2. I-island, offers and meeting a hero

Hatsume had spent about the past two hours telling Izuku and Momo about what she had created for the competition. She had created a new kind of jetpack. Jetpacks weren’t a new invention, a few heroes used them but Mei had invented a more streamlined, powerful and efficient kind of jetpack. She affectionately called it the rocketpack, saying it flew more like a rocket than a jet. It was only a prototype though, the process hadn’t been completely perfected yet but it was usable at it was. 

While that was arguably more impressive than Spark, it was decided to only be in third place as it was still a prototype. Still, it had been deemed promising enough to be considered a finished product for the benefit of the competition. 

She was interrupted by the voice of the pilot informing them that they were beginning their descent to I-island. 

Izuku and his two new friends all looked out the window of the plane as they came in to land at I-island airport. Their eyes were all wide with wonder, they’d each seen pictures of the marvellous floating city before but none of them had ever seen it in person before. 

For a bunch of tech and science nerds like them, this place was practically heaven. 

While on the plane, they had each introduced their parents to each other. 

Hatsume was travelling with her dad who was named Matsuo Hatsume. 

Yaoyorozu introduced her parents as Toto and Coco. Yes, they were aware of how funny it sounded and yes that is what made them name their daughter Momo. They also travelled with their family’s head butler, an aging yet still physically capable man named Sebas. 

Inko was rather intimidated at having to interact with people who were all much more knowledgeable about technology and science than her, as well as being much wealthier but they were actually very pleasant. 

It was at that moment that Izuku remembered where he knew the name Yaoyorozu from. They owned a company called Yaoyorozu Industries that developed and produced high tech equipment for all kinds of different sectors, primarily Heroics and Medical. 

That just gave Izuku another reason to freak out over having made a new friend, one of them was the heir to the most advanced centre of technology outside of I-island. 

“If I may have your attention passengers, we are coming in to land at I-island airport in just a moment, once we land, you will be taken through immigration and will then be met by Professor Shield” came the voice of the pilot through the speakers. 

The three kids all excitedly retook their seats and buckled in for landing. 

They didn’t really need to, the plane landed so smoothly they probably wouldn’t have moved if they were stood up. 

Just barely a minute later, the co-pilot opened the cockpit door and smiled at the passengers. “We have landed on I-island, if you’ll just exit via the stairs, immigration is just ahead of you, we hope you had a pleasant flight and welcome to I-island" he announced, giving a small bow. 

Izuku and Hatsume were practically having to be held back to stop them from just leaping from the plane. 

As the group exited the plane, they saw a sign leading them towards immigration intake just ahead of them. Toto and Coco led the group there as they were the only ones that had actually been here before. 

They were shareholders in several of the corporations and laboratories on the island so they had been here several times before. It was Momo’s first time here however. 

Just before they all entered immigration, Toto turned to the group. “Just a quick warning, we’ll be stepping onto a conveyor belt in here that will take us through a scanner so make sure your footing is secure” 

Everyone nodded in understanding, Izuku and Hatsume bouncing with excitement. 

With that said, they all stepped through the doors onto the conveyor belts. The kids looked at the scanners on the walls which came up with their identities and even their quirk records. It was a bit of a kick in the teeth to see ‘Quirkless’ in red next to Izuku’s name but he tried not to let it bother him. 

After a few moments of Inko nearly falling over, not having the best balance and being slightly top heavy, they reached the other side with an announcement that their immigration was complete. 

And then, they stepped out into I-island. 

Izuku held a hand up to his eyes as the bright sunlight temporarily blinded him. Slowly, his eyes adjusted until he could make out I-island in all of its glory. 

He saw large buildings everywhere, beautiful parks and all kinds of advanced technology as far as the eye could see. 

There were hovering vehicles that looked like old fashioned UFO type designs and some people were bouncing around on pogo sticks. Izuku noticed one of the people riding them pick it up and watched it turn into a much smaller handheld form. 

His eyes widened with amazement, he didn’t even know that was possible but it gave him so many more ideas for potential inventions. 

The other two were much the same, Hatsume was looking around at everything with a manic grin and clenched fists while Yaoyorozu had an open smile of wonder on her face. 

Aside from Yaoyorozu’s parents and Sebas who had seen this before, everyone else was looking around in wonder too. 

The group stood staring for several minutes before a voice called out to them. “Hello there!” 

Everyone turned to where the voice came from to see David Shield stood at the bottom of the stairs they were at the top of with several other scientists behind him. 

Izuku immediately started vibrating with excitement. “Oh my god... it’s David Shield” he muttered to himself. 

The light brown-haired scientist grinned at the group and waved them over. 

The kids wasted no time in heading down the stairs, Izuku and Hatsume practically dragging their parents down with them. 

The scientist grinned at them all as they assembled in front of him and he began to speak in Japanese. “Hey there everyone, it’s great to meet you all in person” he greeted. He looked at Yaoyorozu and smiled at her. “And it’s very good to finally meet you in person Momo, your parents have told me many things about you” 

Momo blushed happily and hid her face slightly. 

David chuckled at her reaction and turned to the other two kids. “Good to meet you guys, I know we already spoke a few weeks ago but let me introduce myself properly this time, my name’s David Shield, I'm a scientist and inventor here on I-island" 

Izuku was nodding ecstaticlly. “And you used to be All Might’s technician, you made his hero suits and you worked with him while he was in America” 

David chuckled, “Yeah you’re right, not many people still remember me from back then” 

Mei was grinning widely too. “Are you kidding me? The car you drove All Might around in was an absolute marvel of engineering, that’s what inspired me to become one myself” 

David smiled and knelt in front of her, “Well... I’ll be honest, I never expected anyone other than my daughter to say I was their inspiration so I'm very honoured, thanks Hatsume” 

Mei nodded happily, “Call me Mei, it makes things easier” 

Izuku nodded in agreement, “Yeah... call me Izuku too please” 

David nodded, “Can do, speaking of making things easy, hands up those here that can speak English” 

The Yaoyorozu’s, Sebas and Izuku all put their hands up. Mei shook her hand in front of her, “I can speak a bit but I'm not fluent” 

Inko nodded, “Same here” 

Matsuo shrugged his shoulders, “I can’t speak a word of it to be honest” he admitted. 

David nodded, “Alright then, for the benefit of those, we’ll try to stick to Japanese as much as we can but remember that most people here speak English, only some speak Japanese” 

Matsuo and Inko both sighed in relief. They both understood what it was like to have a child that was much smarter than them. 

David clapped his hands together. “Alright then, I'll take you to your apartments for the month and I'll leave you to get settled in for the rest of the day so you can deal with your jet-lag, I'll come and get you all at around seven this evening for a meal at a restaurant, does that sound good to everyone?” 

There were no complaints, it was at about then that everyone realised that a nap sounded like a pretty good idea. 

As Izuku and Inko stepped into the apartment that would be their home for this trip, Inko nearly fainted at the sight of it. The kitchen and living room alone was probably the size of their entire apartment back home and it was filled with high tech looking modern appliances and furnishings. 

They each had their own room to stay in which had an en-suite bathroom each as well as a spacious living room and kitchen/dining room combo. 

Spark started flying around the apartment happily, exploring his new home for the foreseeable future. 

Izuku dropped his bag at his feet and walked into the apartment, looking around at the luxury they were staying in. He took a seat on a plush red sofa and thought to himself. “This is because of me... I’m the reason we’re here...” 

A wide smile broke out across his face as he came to that realisation. He had really done something to be proud of, out of who knows how many entries, he beat almost all of them, coming second place in the whole world and that was why they were here now. 

He let out a joyous whoop and threw his hands in the air. 

As promised, David had come to pick them just after seven. Each of the winners and their families had each rested for several hours before their meal and as they all met up again, Inko started to feel slightly inadequate as the Yaoyorozu’s had turned up dressed in clothes that she couldn’t have even dreamt of affording. It appeared that Matsuo was in a similar situation. He was a car mechanic back in Japan so the fanciest his clothes got were a button up shirt and jeans. 

Still though, this was about Izuku and the other two so she pushed her own insecurities to the side as much as she could. 

With the group assembled once more, David smiled at them and revealed a new figure. “I’d like you all to meet my daughter, Melissa” 

A girl who was maybe only a few years older than the three winners appeared from behind the scientist. She had straight blonde hair and a pair of sea blue eyes behind a pair of glasses that glinted in the sunset. 

She waved shyly at them all, “Hello... my name is Melissa” she spoke slowly in Japanese. 

Izuku and Momo introduced themselves in English which made the blonde girl sigh in relief. Mei did the same but it was clear she wasn’t as knowledgeable about the language as the other two. 

Spark took this opportunity to introduce himself to Melissa too, hovering in front of her at eye height and bleeping cheerfully at her. 

Melissa’s eyes went wide and she giggled, “Nice to meet you Spark, I've been looking forward to meeting you since my papa told me about you” 

Spark bounced up and down in the air and faced away slightly. If he was human, they were pretty sure he would have been blushing. 

David looked at his daughter in surprise, “You can understand Spark?” he asked. 

Melissa nodded, “Yeah... can you not?” 

David shook his head, “No I can’t” 

Izuku took a half step forward, “So far the only ones that can are me, Hatsume and you” he explained. 

Melissa nodded with a smile, “Well, that means he’s got one more person he can talk to now” 

Spark cheerfully bleeped in agreement. 

David grinned and clapped his hands together gently, “Alright then, the restaurant is close, shall we go?” 

The restaurant they went to was a rather high class one so the Yaoyorozu’s felt right at home. The others, not so much. 

The Midoriyas generally only had simple yet well-made meals as Inko was an excellent cook and the Hatsumes generally lived on what could be called, university food, lots of instant noodles and very simple meals. 

David and Melissa sat near the head of the table they had booked while the three winners sat next to each other while their parents were sat opposite them. 

Since the restaurant was a French style one, that meant the menus were all written in both French and English. Izuku and Momo could speak a little bit of French but the rest of them were almost completely clueless which led to them having to explain what things were to the rest of the table which did embarrass David slightly as he hadn’t quite realised that would be an issue. 

Still though, despite their initial unease as the high-class establishment, everyone soon relaxed and enjoyed their time there. The food was excellent, even if very different to what most of them normally have and they all spent a bit of time getting to know each other. 

Izuku was smiling happily as he ate his meal, a cheesy pasta dish of some kind which he felt would have been more at home in an Italian restaurant, but it was delicious, so he wasn’t complaining. 

Mei had been a little bit more sceptic of the food than the others as she’d never had anything remotely like this before but was soon eating away with as much decorum as she could manage. Which wasn’t a lot really. 

The three winners spent quite a bit of time speaking to Melissa as she was also interested in science and technology. The conversation at one point turned to their futures. 

“Oh, I want to be a scientist, like my papa” Melissa told them with a smile. 

Izuku, who was sat next to her, smiled and nodded. “You want to help people like your dad did with All Might or like he does now?” 

“Oh, I want to help everyone really but I think I'll focus on helping heroes, it’s a dangerous job and I want to do what I can to help keep them safe” she answered. 

Yaoyorozu nodded, “A noble sentiment, did you ever think about becoming a hero yourself?” she asked. 

Melissa smiled sadly for a moment, “I did... everyone wanted to at some point... I won’t be able to though, I doubt I'd be cut out for it... besides, I'm quirkless” 

Izuku looked up from his plate and gave her an understanding smile, “I know that feeling... I'm quirkless too” he admitted. 

Melissa’s eyes widened, “Really? I’ve never actually met another quirkless person before... what do you want to do?” 

Izuku looked down at the fancy carpeted floor for a second before looking back up at her. “I want to be a hero, even though I’m quirkless” 

Melissa’s eyes widened once again, out of shock this time. “Really? But... isn’t that really dangerous?” she asked, voice thick with concern. 

Izuku nodded, “Yeah... but it’s dangerous being a hero with a quirk anyway” he replied. 

Melissa nodded and sat in thought for a few seconds, “I suppose you’re right, I never really thought about it like that” 

Mei leaned in at this point, having just about followed the conversation in English. “Yeah, Midoriya’s gonna be the first quirkless hero in Japan” she announced. 

Izuku blushed slightly, it was nearly unheard of for someone to actually support him in that aside from his mom. 

Melissa stared at the green haired boy next to her for a few moments before a wide smile appeared on her face, “Please... please make it, I want to see a quirkless hero so much... maybe it’ll prove to people we aren’t useless...” she almost begged. 

Izuku looked at her sadly, “Do people say you’re useless?” he asked. 

Melissa nodded sadly, “Yeah... some, other kids mainly... I think most of them are angry that a quirkless girl like me is much smarter than them” 

Izuku nodded, “I know how that feels, they think they’re better because they have quirks and then they get angry that I always beat them in exams” 

Melissa nodded and smiled, “It’s... nice... to finally have someone who knows how it feels” 

Mei looked at the two sadly, “You two have been really lonely haven’t you?” she asked. 

They both just nodded. 

Mei and Momo looked at each other and then smiled at them, “Well... we’re your friends right? You don’t have to be lonely anymore” Momo said, almost whispering. 

Izuku and Melissa were both smiling widely with watery eyes, even though they had already told Izuku they wanted to be friends, he still almost didn’t believe. 

He was starting to though. 

Across the table, the adults watched this interaction with soft smiles. Inko was happy that Izuku had met someone who had gone through the same things he had, as was David while the other girl’s parents were both happy that they wanted to be friends with them. 

Everyone went to sleep that night with wide smiles on their faces, Izuku and Melissa especially. 

David had explained to them that the next day, they would all be going to the main tower in the centre of the island where most of the high security labs and offices were although he was frustratingly vague about what they would be doing there. When Momo asked if they were going there for a tour he only replied, “Not at first, there’s a bit of business to sort out first” 

That vague answer annoyed the three winners, especially when it seemed like everyone else knew what it was about apart from them, even their parents. 

This was the only time Izuku could think of where his mom didn’t tell him something that he asked about, she’d even spilled her plans about his sixth birthday party to him when he had just asked one day but she stubbornly refused to tell him what was happening tomorrow. 

Izuku and his mom woke up early the next morning, their sleep schedule still adapting to their new time zone. They ate a simple breakfast from food provided in the apartment and waited to be collected. 

Izuku was talking with Spark who was happy to find out that someone had made a special charging port for him so he didn’t have to just sit on the floor when he charged up overnight. 

Izuku kicked himself for not thinking of that himself and decided to thank whoever made that. 

Then, at about 10am, David and Melissa arrived, David wearing a lab coat over a suit and Melissa wearing a smaller lab coat. 

Their clothes made Izuku even more confused about what they would be doing today. 

The girls were in the same boat, their parents had also been told what would be happening today but refused to tell them, the only thing Momo managed to get out of her parents was that it would help secure her future. Even Sebas refused to tell her, just saying that he had been forbidden from telling her but that she would definitely enjoy it. 

Mei hadn’t gotten anything out of her dad, he had apparently gotten very good at not telling her things. 

They soon arrived at the tower and David brought them all through the heavy security in order to access the labs, giving them all special passes. 

He then led them onto an elevator, and they went high into the tower, coming to a stop on the 131st floor. There, he led them through a series of sterile white hallways and led them into a large laboratory. 

What greeted them there confused the three kids slightly as there was a group of people wearing suits and lab coats as well as several sealed crates. 

“So then, it’s about time I tell you what’s going on” David began, the three kids nodding in agreement. “Well then, in these crates, aside from Spark, are what you sent in for the competition, as you know, we asked Yaoyorozu and Hatsume here to ship us their entries” 

The two girls nodded, still slightly confused. 

“Well, these people are the board of directors of I-island, and they’re here to examine your work” he explained. 

Izuku held a hand up, “What for exactly?” 

David grinned, “You’ll see, may they have a look at Spark?” 

Izuku looked between David and the hovering robot for a few seconds before nodding. “Sure... go ahead Spark” 

Spark bleeped and flew up to the group of people ahead who began carefully examining him. Over the next twenty minutes or so, Izuku had Spark demonstrate his various features such as his retractable arm and his built in taser which impressed many of them, including Mei and Momo as they hadn’t seen any of Spark’s functions yet. 

After a short while longer, they were seemingly satisfied after a brief hushed discussion between them. 

Over the next hour or so, the directors also examined the shipment of Beskar that Momo had created and Mei’s prototype jetpack. 

The two girls explained the different features of their creations. Momo explained that her Beskar was lighter than Aluminium but stronger than diamond. While it was incredibly hardy and head resistant, it was possible to melt it down and forge it into items but the exact process of forging she kept a secret, as she did with its exact molecular makeup. 

Mei explained the workings of her jetpack, explaining how she made it much more fuel efficient, powerful and yet how it didn’t produce any environmentally harmful emissions. 

All in all, the directors were very impressed with all of them, these were three items they might have expected from their own scientists, not three eight-year-old kids from Japan. 

David took the winners and their families for lunch while the board discussed what they’d seen. He still refused to tell them why exactly he’d had the directors examine their creations much to their annoyance. 

Shortly after lunch, they were taken to the directors again, in a large, fancy boardroom this time. 

Once they had all taken their seats, an older man in a lab coat at the head of the table started speaking in English while David translated it to Japanese for those that didn’t speak it. 

“Well then, first I would like to introduce myself, my name is Arnold and I am the head of the board of directors on I-island" he began. 

The three kids all introduced themselves back politely yet still confused. 

“I’ll cut to the chase since I get the feeling you’re a bit impatient, we allowed Professor Shield here to organise this competition with the hope of finding the world’s most promising young scientists and inventors” he explained. “And those are you” 

All three of the winners started smiling so wide their faces hurt. 

Arnold smiled kindly and continued, “And as a reward for what you have done, using only what resources you could get your hands on and your own intelligences, we would like to offer you two things...” he said, pausing for dramatic effect. 

Izuku, Momo and Mei all leaned forward in their chairs, ready to burst if they had to wait any longer. 

“First of all, we will allow you all to patent your creations with the authority of I-island, this will make certain that your creations are yours and yours alone... this should help secure your future slightly” he explained with a smile. 

The three winners’ eyes were all shining with excitement and pride. Momo suddenly understood what her parents meant. 

“And our second offer I believe would help you secure your future even more... we would like to offer each of you a place here on I-island, if you wish it, you would be permitted to live, learn and work here in the single most advanced place on earth, a perfect place for the innovators of the future” he finished. 

The kids were all floored, this was quite literally a once in a lifetime offer. 

Arnold chuckled and waved a hand in the air, “I understand this is a huge decision and will require discussion so you do not have to answer us now, you may enjoy your stay here and give us an answer at the end of your stay here” 

The kids all relaxed slightly, glad they weren’t being put on the spot. 

“In terms of the patents for your inventions, we have already filled them out, you may read them over to be certain they are to your benefit and then all they require is your signatures” Arnold explained as another man in a suit passed over three thin reams of paper. 

Sebas immediately reached over and picked up each of them, stacking them together and holding onto them. “We shall examine these together carefully, they shall be returned once we are certain they are to our benefit” he explained. 

The Yaoyorozu’s all just nodded and the others didn’t have any objections. 

Arnold nodded, “Very well, then I suppose the only thing left for me to say is congratulations on winning the competition and I hope you will carefully consider our offer” he finished, standing up and giving them all a bow, each of the other directors following suit. 

Izuku was practically catatonic as David led him and the others away from the boardroom. He couldn’t believe what he’d heard. He was being given a patent for Spark... he’d have to come up with a name for the actual kind of robot rather than just Spark and he’d been asked to stay on I-island. 

Not even in his wildest dreams had he thought that would ever happen to him. 

He came back to awareness as David led them into another laboratory, one that he explained was his private lab. 

He spent the next hour or so showing the kids all of his past, current and future inventions, eagerly answering any questions they had and trying to answer as simply as possible for the less technologically minded parents. 

The parents each decided that in the future they would go and find something else to do once the science talk started. 

The group was interrupted slightly by the arrival of a larger man with short blonde hair and blue eyes. 

“Hello David, I'm sorry for interrupting” he apologised. 

David smiled and waved a hand in the air, “It’s fine, we were just about finished” he replied before turning to his guests. “This is my assistant Sam, we’ve worked together for years now” he introduced. 

Sam smiled and chuckled, “And we’ve done a lot of good in those years, anyway, I'm sorry to interrupt again but the hero you wanted to see was here” 

David nodded, “Oh good, thanks Sam, could you show him in please?” he asked. 

Sam nodded and left again. 

David turned to the others to explain, “I heard about a Japanese underground hero with a fascinating quirk, I was hoping to bring him here to see if I could replicate his quirk as I believe it could be tremendously useful in capturing villains” he explained. 

Izuku’s eyes were shining, he’d get to meet a hero? 

The doors opened once more and Sam reappeared with a new figure. “Here he is David, I'll leave you to it” he said before turning and walking away. 

David smiled at the new figure and waved him over, “Good to meet you Eraserhead, I hope the journey here wasn’t too hard?” he asked in Japanese. 

The new figure was a tired looking man with relatively long, messy black hair, wearing a black jumpsuit and a grey scarf like thing around his neck. He walked in, rubbing the back of his neck with a hand. 

“It was alright, I slept most of the way here” he responded before looking at the group in the room. 

Nobody noticed, but for a split second, his gaze froze when he saw Inko and Izuku and his expression became one of alarm. 

Luckily for him, nobody noticed so he pretended nothing happened. “Who are all of these people?” he asked. 

“These kids are the winners of a competition I organised, out of the entire world, these three invented things deemed exceptional enough to be offered a place to stay here on I-island" he explained. 

Eraserhead nodded, glancing at the green haired boy for a second. “Impressive, I'm guessing you’re taking them on a tour or something?” 

David nodded, “I am, would you want to meet them properly?” he asked. 

Eraserhead hesitated for a moment before nodding, “Sure...” he answered uncertainly. 

He walked closer to the group and knelt in front of the kids, giving them an awkward smile. 

“Erm... hi guys... I'm Eraserhead... I'm an underground hero so you probably haven’t heard of me... my quirk is-” 

“Erasure right? It lets you cancel out people’s quirks by looking at them” Izuku finished excitedly. 

The briefest flash of a smile appeared on Eraserhead’s face before disappearing. “That’s right kid, you’re a smart one, barely anyone even know who I am, let along what my quirk is” 

“Well... you’re actually my favourite hero” he admitted shyly. 

Eraserhead’s entire body froze upon hearing that and he glanced up at Inko who was giving him a very odd stare. 

“You cancel out villain’s quirks but then you still fight them quirkless... you’re basically the closest thing to a quirkless hero that I know of...” Izuku explained. 

Eraserhead nodded, “Yeah, it’s difficult but my quirk is a good equaliser” 

Izuku smiled, “And... well... I’m quirkless but I’ve always wanted to be a hero... so you’ve been an inspiration for me ever since I heard about you” 

Once again, the bare minimum of a smile appeared for a split second. 

“And well... I wanted to ask you something... do you think I can still become a hero even without a quirk?” Izuku asked, shutting his eyes tightly. 

This... this was a difficult question. Aizawa wanted to say yes, of course he did, saying no would be pretty hypocritical... 

But could he in good conscience tell his son to put himself in danger like that? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've read my other stories you might be able to tell... I'm a big fan of Dadzawa.
> 
> Didn't see any reason to stop here so here we go, another fic with Dadzawa. The best Zawa.
> 
> Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.


	3. Life comes crumbling down

Aizawa knelt there for a few more seconds, wondering exactly how to answer that question. 

This was by far the hardest question he’d ever been asked. If it was anyone else then he would have answered yes without a second thought. 

But this was his son. 

And it was his fault he was quirkless in the first place. 

He met Inko not even a year after he graduated from UA and had become an underground hero. She was a trainee nurse at a local hospital which was actually how they met. He ended up in the ER after getting overconfident with a villain. 

He liked to think he was suave and charming, but he suspected he was actually incredibly awkward and she was just being kind. Still though, he must have done something right because they were soon dating. 

She knew about his work and accepted the potential risks that could come from it. 

For a year or so, they were incredibly happy and were even thinking about marriage when they received two scares very close to each other. 

The first came while they were out on a date. It was nothing special, they had just gone for a meal at one of their favourite meals and were planning on going for a walk when a passing villain recognised Aizawa. 

He managed to keep everyone safe but the villain had a gun and nearly shot Inko. 

While they made it out safe, that was the first time that they really understood the risks of seeing each other. 

The second scare came only a few days later when Inko came out of the bathroom and told him that she was pregnant. 

For a second, his entire world froze. It wasn’t that he didn’t want kids, he was unprepared for it but he could adapt. It was that he might have lost both of them without even knowing that. 

It took weeks and then months of talking, arguing and sobbing, but they eventually both agreed that it would be best for both of them if they were to split up and for Inko to raise their child alone. 

Aizawa didn’t want to lose them but he was willing to make the sacrifice if they would be safe. Inko was the stubborn one, she said that they would be fine and that he could protect them... but eventually, she gave in. 

It wasn’t like he was planning to let them fend for themselves, he planned to send them a heavy chunk of his paycheck every month but he couldn’t be in their lives for their own safety. 

The last time he saw either of them in person was on the day Izuku was born. They had previously discussed it and Inko had come up with the name. 

It was one of the most painful experiences of his life. As he wasn’t even properly there to support her. He watched her through a window from an opposite rooftop. 

That was as close as he could get though without risking anyone making the connection. 

Still though, he smiled at the sight of the tiny little boy in Inko’s arms. His son. 

Even if he could never know him, he’d love him. 

Then, several years later, he heard from Inko for the first time in almost a year. She had taken Izuku to a quirk specialist. 

He was quirkless. 

Aizawa’s heart broke. He was treated badly enough for his quirk, he couldn’t imagine how Izuku would be treated for not having a quirk at all. 

Then Inko explained what the doctor told her in private. They did some blood tests on Izuku to examine his quirk factor and what they found was something they’d never seen before. 

She said she didn’t understand all of the terms he used as she wasn’t a quirk specialist but the basic point was that Aizawa’s own quirk erased Izuku’s quirk factor in the womb. 

In short, Aizawa’s quirk factor erased his son’s. 

Aizawa shook his head slightly and looked back at Izuku. He gave him a soft smile. “...it’ll be really difficult and dangerous... but yes, I think you can be a quirkless hero” he relented. 

Izuku immediately began to tear up and his face broke out into a huge smile. He ran forward and wrapped his arms around Aizawa. 

For a second, Aizawa froze. Then he relaxed and gently returned the hug, knowing it may very well be his only chance to ever do so. Izuku continued to cling to him for a few more seconds before pulling away. 

“I’m really sorry, I just... I didn’t think a hero would actually say that” Izuku apologised. 

Aizawa smiled and gently patted his head, “It’s alright kid and for what it's worth... I really mean it, if you can make it here then you can definitely become a hero” 

Izuku smiled and nodded. 

“Alright Eraserhead, would you mind if we started now?” David asked. 

He shook his head and stood up. “No that’s fine” 

David nodded and clapped his hands, “Alright then, sorry guys but I'm gonna have to cut the tour short slightly, I need to do some work with Eraserhead here, you’ve got the rest of the day to do what you want and make sure you speak to Sam on the way out, he’ll give you all passes that’ll let you get in most places on the island” 

The group all nodded and started to make their way out of the lab. Izuku turned around as he was leaving and waved at Aizawa with a wide smile. 

Aizawa waved back with the smallest of smiles. 

He saw Inko looking at him with a very conflicted look before the doors closed. 

He shook his head and sighed. “...Well... at least I met him once” he sighed happily. 

For Izuku and the other two winners, the next few weeks were probably the best of their lives. 

Some days, they would be taken on tours of different labs, workshops and factories on the island. They were often taken on their own since for the most part, their parents didn’t understand what the guides were talking about. 

Sebas did stay with them however, partly to act as a caretaker for them but also because he did actually understand many of the same things that the kids did so they could actually talk to him about them. 

Izuku and Mei found the greying butler to be a very polite but kind and fun man. He clearly cared a lot for Momo but he seemed to warm up to them over the next couple of weeks too. 

Their parents would often entertain themselves by indulging in many of the other attractions that the island offered. Momo’s parents acted as guides for the others as they had been here several times before. 

While they were having a lovely time, Izuku was certain he and the girls were having a better one. 

They had been shown all kinds of inventions in development, from agricultural machines to self-replicating robots (Which Izuku showed a great, if cautious, interest in) and even a prototype transforming fighter jet which could shift into a ground walking mech. This was of immense interest to Mei who had specifically requested to see any weapon labs they had. 

David was not... eager... to show them their weapon manufacturing section but the board of directors instructed him to show them anything they wanted to with a few exceptions. He suspected that they believed that their interests would show their future expertise and would encourage them to stay. 

With that in mind, he noticed that Momo showed a particular interest in theoretical creations, things such as new kinds of alloys, theorised materials and new ways of basically messing with the laws of nature. This was slight cause for concern. 

Izuku showed most aptitude for robotics and AI research. David would admit to being a little bit worried by both of those things, especially in the hands of a kid who managed to build a robot with very few proper tools and scrap and to even give it a basic personality. 

Mei meanwhile, he suspected would go far in the weapons, vehicular and aerospace fields. Her eyes would constantly sparkle when watching demonstrations of anything that had the potential to either smash, vaporise or explode things. He was also slightly worried about that. 

Actually, if he was going to be honest, all three of the kids kind of scared the crap out of him. He was both excited and terrified to see what they would each come up with in the future. Whatever it was they did, he knew it’d certainly make a huge impact on the world. 

It was about a week before their trip would come to an end and they would have to give the directors an answer about whether they wanted to stay when everything started to crumble around them. 

They’d had another great day, going on a tour of the power plant that provided the entire island with energy and then spending the rest of their day with their families, going out for a meal and shopping. 

Then when evening came around, the adults decided they wanted to go to a performance hall on the island. The kids weren’t exactly enthused about that plan but their parents had gone through a lot of things they didn’t understand or enjoy for them so they accepted it. 

Despite the kid’s initial predictions, the many shows that were one were actually quite enjoyable, even for them. However, as expected, they started to get restless after an hour or two. 

With a lot of poking, whining and pestering, the kids were only allowed to leave after Sebas said that he would watch them to make sure they didn’t cause too much trouble. 

Their parents all relented, telling their children that they couldn’t go too far away from the hall but said they could leave for now. 

The kids all hurriedly scampered out of the hall with Sebas following behind them, a soft smile on his face. 

The hall they were at wasn’t too far away from the main tower in the middle of the island and there were several parks within sight of the doors of the hall. They all decided to go to one of these parks and enjoy the cool evening. 

Despite the fact that they were fidgeting and restless inside, they were all more than content to just sit at the edge of a small artificial lake in the middle of the park and talk for a while, Sebas standing a respectful distance away as to not intrude. 

“I don’t know Izuku... I still feel like self-replicating robots are a dangerous prospect” Momo replied to a previous statement. 

Izuku shook his head, “Unregulated, yes, but if I put in stringent enough conditions and limitations then they can be kept from getting out of control” he explained. 

“How would you do that?” Mei asked. 

“A few simple rules, total number of robots can’t exceed a certain amount, they can only use a limited amount of materials, they can only do so with specific instructions, there are plenty of rules that can be applied to that” Izuku answered. 

Mei nodded, satisfied with the answer while Momo wasn’t convinced yet. “I’m still not sure yet Izuku... it’s very easy for mistakes to be made with such things if there is a coding or logic error” 

Izuku chuckled, “I think you’ve just been watching too many pre-quirk AI films, trust me, if I do go down that road, I plan on being very careful with it, I'm not reckless” 

Momo pouted cutely, he wasn’t wrong but she still felt her point was valid. 

Mei giggled, “It’s alright Izuku, you don’t have to lie to us, it’s alright if you want to unleash our new robotic overlords as long as we get nice cushy jobs afterwards” 

Izuku nodded with a grin, “Well if it ever comes to that I think I could make that happen” 

Momo frowned slightly, “I do not like where this conversation is leading” 

Mei giggled again, “Momo, we’re joking, you need to relax a bit” 

Momo pouted again for a second but nodded, “Alright then... I'll try” 

Izuku smiled and lay back against the grass, looking up at the orange sky above them. He could see the top of the tower just peeking into his sightline too. 

After a few seconds, Mei and Momo did the same thing and the three winners all lay there quietly for a while. 

Mei broke the silence after a few minutes. “So... have you guys thought about staying yet?” she asked. 

Izuku’s mouth upturned in an uncertain smile. “I don’t know... it’s a great opportunity... but I still kind of want to become a hero and if I’m here then I probably won’t be able to leave” 

Momo nodded, “Indeed, it is nearly impossible for researchers here to leave the island on even a temporary basis, if the directors managed to recruit either of you then they’d probably never let you go” 

Izuku and Mei both looked towards her, “So what are you going to do Momo?” Mei asked. 

“Oh, I think I’ll go back to Japan, I would love to stay here but I would also like to take over my parent’s company one day, besides, it’s not like I won’t be able to continue my research and development at home” she replied with a slight shrug of her shoulders. 

Mei looked back up at the sky, “I’m still not sure... I like all the tech here and I like that I'd have basically unlimited resources... but I don’t think I'd be able to stay here, it’s a bit too... well... orderly I guess?” 

Izuku nodded, “I’m more or less the same, besides, I wouldn’t want to take my mom away from her job and friends just so we could stay here” 

Momo smiled, “That’s very kind of you to think like that Izuku” 

Izuku smiled and shrugged, “She’s been the only one to ever help me or believe in me, I'm not going to repay that by ripping her away from everything she knows” 

Mei nodded, “That’s a good point... I think that’s decided it for me too, I don’t want to stay either” 

There came the sound of footsteps behind them, “If I might interject to play devil’s advocate here” Sebas began, “You would each flourish here, you could develop things the likes of which the world has never seen in the most advanced place on earth... you would live comfortably and would be able to give your parents a nice easy life too” 

Izuku smiled, “Our parents have us as kids, I don’t think any of them know what an easy life is” 

Sebas snorted with laughter. He did act all prim and proper whenever he could but wasn’t opposed to acting more casually when the situation allowed it. “I won’t argue with that young sir” he relented. 

Momo patted the grass next to her, “Come sit down Sebas, it doesn’t make any sense for you to be standing on your own over there” 

Sebas nodded, “If you wish my lady” he said, taking a seat next to her. “If I might inquire, what were you talking about?” 

“Oh, Izuku here was planning on starting the robot uprising” Mei joked. 

Sebas smiled, “I see... well if I might make a suggestion, I would recommend making a few additional laws” 

Izuku quirked an eyebrow. “What laws?” he asked. 

“I’d suggest you make some additions to Asimov’s laws of robotics; the current ones are a good starting point but are ultimately flawed... as seen in many of lady Yaoyorozu’s AI films” he suggested. 

Izuku nodded, “That is a good point... how do you know about those?” he asked. 

Sebas smiled, “I was not always a butler, I started working for the Yaoyorozu’s as a researcher when my young lady’s grandparents ran the company... I ended up looking after her father due to my junior position and they eventually offered me a full-time position as a butler to look after him as apparently I was the only person he seemed to actually like” 

Izuku and Mei both nodded, “Oh, so that’s why you could bear to come with us on all the tours” Mei realised. 

Sebas nodded, “Indeed, it has been many years, but it isn’t the kind of knowledge that you forget about” 

Izuku was about to ask him a question when he saw a familiar figure nearby. He sat bolt upright and waved at them, “HI ERASERHEAD!” he shouted happily. 

The underground hero seemed shocked to see them but came over. “Hey guys... what are you up to?” he asked. 

“We’re just talking about using robots to take over the world” Mei replied with a smile. 

Eraserhead just blinked and stared at her. 

“You know Mei... someday someone’s going to take you seriously and then we’re all gonna be in a lot of trouble” Izuku muttered. 

Eraserhead chuckled and shook his head, “Where are your parents?” he asked. 

Momo pointed to the hall, “They’re watching a show in there, we were inside too but we got bored so we came out here” 

Eraserhead peered over at the building and sighed, “Phew that’s lucky... I was actually going there myself, David asked me to meet him there since I’ll be going back to Japan tomorrow” he said. “Thanks for pointing it out” 

Momo smiled, “That’s quite alright” she replied. 

Eraserhead nodded, “Anyway, I need to go see David but I'll come and say goodby-” 

His words were silenced by a series of deafening explosions. Izuku watched as several floors of the main tower burst into flames and he saw many buildings across the island explode into a burst of rubble and fire. 

He and the others eyes all turned to the performance hall just in time to see it suffer the same fate. 

Izuku would later realise that the explosion came from underneath the building, the foundations buckled upwards and the walls burst outwards and the roof came crashing down onto the interior. 

They all just stood there, frozen in shock for several seconds, hearing the sounds of screams, shouts and more distant explosions. 

The group did not move, each frozen by the shock of what they’d seen until Eraserhead sprinted towards the flaming ruins of the performance hall. 

Each of the kids tried to follow him but Sebas grabbed onto each of them, scooping them up in his arms and running in the opposite direction. 

“LET US GO! WE NEED TO HELP!” Momo screamed. 

Sebas shook his head, “I’m sorry... I can’t do that, I need to keep you safe” 

Izuku was still nearly completely frozen but he suddenly snapped out of it with a loud scream. “MOOOOOOOOOOM!” 

About an hour later, Sebas was watching over the three kids, each sat on the ground, just staring ahead in shock. 

Several firefighters and paramedics had tried to examine them but Sebas turned them all away, saying they were unharmed. 

None of them spoke a word until David arrived. 

He slowly approached them, Melissa following behind him. 

“Momo... Mei... Izuku...” he began, kneeling to their level. 

They all already knew what he was going to say, they knew it in their hearts. 

“I’m... I'm so sorry... but we searched the hall... and there weren’t any survivors...” he admitted. 

Izuku didn’t know whether he was going to cry or not, he was probably too in shock for now. He instead let out a series of choked sobs and clutched his chest tightly. 

Momo was doing much the same while Mei was loudly crying and angrily beating the ground with her fist. 

Melissa took a step forward so she appeared in their vision. “I’m... I'm really sorry guys... I’m sorry you came here and that this happened” 

Izuku wiped a tear from his eye. “...It wasn’t your fault... was it?” he asked. 

David shook his head, “I don’t think so” 

“What... what happened?” Momo asked, her voice still choked with emotion. 

“I... I don’t know if I should tell yo-” 

“I demand you do tell them” Sebas interrupted, “They deserve to know what happened, you do not need to protect them, you have already done a poor job of that” he snapped angrily. 

David stared at the butler for a few seconds but nodded, “Fine... we can’t be certain but we’re confident these weren’t a series of accidents, we believe these were purposeful attacks” he explained. 

The three kids just stared at him. 

“WELL OBVIOUSLY YOU IDIOT!” Sebas roared at him, “NONE OF US THOUGHT THEY WERE ACCIDENTS, DO YOU ACTUALLY HAVE ANYTHING USEFUL TO TELL US!?” 

David flinched backwards, startled by the butler’s sudden aggression. “We... we don’t know... I’m sorry” 

Sebas shook his head, “Well then you better inform us the instant you do find out something useful” 

He then started getting the kids to their feet, “Come now, we’ll go to the Yaoyorozu’s apartment for now” he said softly. 

None of them argued, they all just got to their feet and walked alongside him, Momo holding onto his hand for comfort. 

David watched them leave with guilt weighing heavily in his heart. If he hadn’t organised the contest, they wouldn’t have been here and they wouldn’t have lost their parents... 

In a way, this was his fault. 

Later that evening, Sebas and the three kids were all sat around the dinner table in the apartment that Momo was staying in. The kids all had plates of food in front of them, all untouched while Sebas was barely picking at his. 

There hadn’t been much talking since they got to the apartment, the kids were still in shock and not ready to come out of their shells yet. 

In a way, that was best for what Sebas had to bring up with them now. 

“Alright then...” he started. “I know... I know this is a terrible time and I'm sorry for making you make an incredibly difficult decision... but you all need to decide what you’re doing, whether you are staying or returning home” he told them all softly. 

They all nodded slightly, understanding it was necessary. 

“I... I can’t stay here, not now” Izuku muttered, the other girls nodding in agreement. 

“Very well, what should we do when we return to Japan?” Sebas asked, looking at Mei and Izuku. “Do you have somewhere you can stay? Family that can take you in?” 

They both shook their heads. Sebas sighed, that was the answer he didn’t want. 

Momo looked up from the table. “Sebas?” she whispered. 

“Yes Momo?” Sebas replied. 

“Can we... can we take them in?” she asked hopefully. 

Sebas stroked his bearded chin. “Hmm... it is a possibility but only if there is nobody else willing to take them in” he explained. 

Momo looked to the other two. “Would you want to do that?” she asked. 

Izuku and Mei glanced at each other, both unsure. “Can we... can we think about it for a bit?” Mei asked. 

Momo and Sebas nodded, “Of course, you may take all the time you need... in the meantime however, I believe these have become all the more important” he replied, pulling out the patents for their inventions and placing them on the table. “I have thoroughly read through them, you would all be the sole owner of your intellectual property, nobody else has a claim on it, it will still be valid even if you don’t stay on I-island and nobody may replicate them without your permission” he explained. 

They all just stared at the paper for a few minutes, briefly reading over it themselves. Satisfied for now, they each signed their names on the bottom, Izuku writing that Spark’s kind of robot would be known as a Dragonfly. 

Sebas nodded and collected the papers once more. “You do not need to worry, I will handle the business with the directors so you do not have to concern yourselves with them” 

“Sebas?... what’s going to happen now?” Momo asked. 

Sebas sighed, “... I’m afraid I don’t know Momo... but if you wish it, I will do everything in my power to look after you all” 

Momo nodded and smiled just the slightest bit. “Thank you Sebas...” she whispered. 

The butler nodded, “If you do not wish to eat, I recommend you go to bed, you could all do with a good night’s rest... or as close to one as you can get” 

The kids all nodded and left the room, all just assembling in the room Momo was staying in. 

Sebas sat at the table for a moment longer before beginning to gather up the untouched plates. 

‘I do not know that this was not some kind of attempt on miss Yaoyorozu’s life’ he thought to himself. ‘I may have to get in touch with some old colleagues once we get back to Japan’ 

It was about midnight now and none of the kids could sleep. 

Their emotions had finally broken and they had all spent close to two full hours sobbing violently and clinging to each other for comfort. 

Now they had all run out of tears to cry but were still holding onto each other. 

“Why do things like this have to happen?” Momo wondered aloud, sniffling quietly. 

“... because bad people exist” Mei replied. 

Izuku nodded, “This is why we need heroes... to stop things like this happening” 

Momo looked up at the ceiling for a few minutes in quiet contemplation. “Before this... I was content to become a scientist and researcher at Yaoyorozu Industries, eventually running it... but now... I want to stop things like this happening” 

Mei nodded in agreement, “...but how?” she asked. 

“Simple... I'm going to become a hero too” she answered, gently squeezing Izuku’s hand as she did so. 

Izuku smiled proudly, just a little bit. 

Mei nodded, “...alright, me too” she agreed. 

Finally, Izuku started to feel the pull of sleep on his body and his eyes started drooping shut. His last thought before falling asleep was that at least his new friends were still with him, Momo curled up on her side next to him gently holding his hand and Mei with her arms wrapped around him and cuddling him like a teddy bear. 

It had been a... truly awful day... but at least he had them. 

It was only a short while after that when there was a knock at the door of the apartment. Sebas crept his way to the door quietly and peered through the peephole. Upon recognising Eraserhead, he opened the door and wordlessly let him in. 

The hero looked in a rough state, his hands were scraped and bleeding and he was covered in soot and ash. 

You could still see the trails from where his tears had fallen on his face however. 

The two men sat down at the table, neither speaking for a minute until Aizawa cleared his throat. 

“Is... is Izuku alright?” he asked. 

Sebas nodded, “He is doing as well as can be hoped for in the situation, he was in shock for quite a while but I heard him start to process it a while ago” he explained. 

Aizawa nodded, “... good... at least he’s safe” 

“Let me ask you... is he your son?” Sebas whispered. 

Aizawa flinched for a second but nodded. 

“Are you going to tell him?” Sebas asked. 

Aizawa cringed and looked down at the table “... I don’t know... he has so much to blame me for... not being there for them, for him being quirkless and then I couldn’t even save his mother... he’d hate me if he knew the truth” 

“Perhaps... but does he not deserve the truth regardless?” Sebas replied. 

Aizawa sighed, “Yeah... I’ll tell him... but not yet... when he’s ready to hear it, I promise I'll tell him” 

Sebas looked him deep in the eyes, searching for any trace of a lie. He didn’t see any. The aging butler nodded. “Very well... at the minute, the plan is that he will come back to Japan with us and that if nobody can be found to take him in, he will come to live with us” 

Aizawa nodded, “That’s probably best, he’ll be safer and happier than he could be with me anyway... I've got no business looking after him anyway” 

Sebas shook his head, “I must disagree, I believe you are being too hard on yourself... why did you leave in the first place?” 

Aizawa looked down in shame, “We thought it would be better for her and Izuku... they would be safer if they didn’t have any connection to me” 

Sebas smiled kindly, “That kind of sacrifice is exactly why you would have made an excellent father” 

Aizawa looked up at the butler and back down repeatedly, a smile slowly appearing on his face. 

“Thanks... maybe I can prove it one day” 


	4. Return to Japan and three young geniuses

Izuku slowly opened his eyes and began to sit upright. His new room was dim, it being only maybe six in the morning and the sun just barely rising. 

It had been just under three weeks since the worst day of his life. 

With the decision to return home, the board of directors were obviously disappointed that none of them chose to remain but they couldn’t really blame them given the circumstances. 

David and Melissa saw them off at the airport, David still feeling the guilt for bringing them here in the first place. 

None of them blamed him but that didn’t assuage his guilt in any way. 

Melissa too understood why they were leaving but was upset that her new friends she had just made were leaving already. She cheered up slightly though when Momo told her that if she ever wanted to come visit them in Japan she would be more than welcome to and they could still keep in touch in other ways too. 

With a goodbye said by both sides, Izuku and the others were on the plane taking them back to Japan. 

Sebas hated to do it, but as soon as they got back to Japan, he had Izuku and Mei taken back to their homes so collect anything they wanted to bring with them. 

It was a painful experience for both of them and neither wanted to linger. They both just grabbed all of their equipment, some clothes and a few personal items and left. 

Their arrival to the grand Yaoyorozu estate was darkened somewhat at the realisation that there was a crowd of reporters gathered around the gate, desperate for a story after hearing what had happened on I-island. 

Sebas gripped the steering wheel tightly as the car slowly forced its way through the throng of reporters, infuriated at the lack of respect shown. 

With the tinted windows he doubted any of them got any pictures of the kids in the back but the principle still made him absolutely livid. 

After the car passed through the large iron gate, he stopped and got out of the car, warning the reporters that they would be considered trespassers if they did not leave soon. 

Disappointed but fearful of legal action, the reporters started to scatter over the next few minutes. 

With the media dealt with, Sebas got back in the car and took the kids up to the mansion. 

The tour of the house was a brief one, for now Sebas only showed Mei and Izuku the areas they would go to on a regular basis, the private dining room, kitchen and the rooms they would be staying in, knowing they weren’t in a state of mind for much else right now. 

About a week after their arrival at the Yaoyorozu estate, during which Izuku and Mei had started to come out of their shells slightly with help from Momo and Sebas, a small group of lawyers came by the estate to handle the matter of wills and such. 

Neither Izuku or Mei’s parents had left a will. Since they were their only next of kin, all of their possessions would pass to them once they became adults at eighteen. 

It was slightly different when it came to Momo. Her parents had left a will. 

She had the whole Yaoyorozu estate left to her, under the guardianship of Sebas until she was fourteen years old. Similarly, her parent’s majority shares in Yaoyorozu Industries would fall to her when she turned fourteen. 

Until then, the shares would essentially be in limbo. They were technically hers now but she couldn’t attend shareholders meetings or any such thing.. 

None of them enjoyed these conversations but they were necessary. The day after that, they had a small ceremony on the grounds of the estate, not having found any of their bodies and so being unable to have a normal funeral. 

Surprisingly for Sebas, after the ceremony, Izuku and Mei both seemed to almost completely snap out of their melancholy. He assumed the closure it provided helped them mentally move on. 

Over the next couple of days, Sebas sat down with the three kids and asked them what they planned on doing. 

They would all have to return to school the next week, their allowed time away from school ending. 

For now, there were no answers as they all wanted to take a little bit of time to think about it. They all knew they wanted to become heroes, it was just how to go about doing that they needed to think about. 

Shaking his head slightly, Izuku threw the covers off himself and started to get ready for his first day back at school. For now at least, he and Mei would both return to their old schools while Momo attended her old school but Sebas said that if changes needed to be made, he could arrange for Izuku and Mei to go to school with Momo instead. 

Making his way out of his new bedroom which was only slightly smaller than his old apartment, and the bed which was probably the size of his bedroom, he walked down the extravagantly decorated halls to the family dining room. 

While obviously they had a much larger, grander and aptly named ‘Grand Hall’, they didn’t tend to use it unless hosting guests, the colossal table not being the right environment for a family meal. 

In a way, the family dining room was much nicer, it was still beautifully furnished but it was also right next to the main kitchen itself which meant the room constantly was filled with the aroma of delicious food. 

As Izuku entered, he found that as usual, Momo was already awake and currently picking at a plate of fruit pieces with a cup of tea while reading a newspaper. 

Momo was always an early riser. Izuku generally slept in a bit later than most kids but he also went to bed later. Mei... didn’t always sleep but when she did, it was near impossible to wake her and she would sleep for as long as her body would allow her. 

“Morning Momo” Izuku greeted as he took a seat. 

Momo looked up from the paper and smiled, “Good morning Izuku, did you sleep well?” 

Izuku shrugged, “A bit better, I think I'm starting to get used to sleeping in a bed that huge” 

Hearing the conversation, Sebas emerged from the kitchen. “Good morning Izuku, what would you like for breakfast today?” he asked, polite as always. 

“Just some toast and cereal today please Sebas” Izuku requested. 

Sebas nodded and disappeared back into the kitchen. 

Izuku shook his head slightly and glanced at the table, “It still feels weird to have Sebas and the other staff do everything for me” 

Momo looked up from her paper again and smiled, “I know it’ll take some getting used to but you’ll adapt” 

Izuku sighed quietly, “You’re probably right... what’s in the paper? Anything new?” 

Momo shook her head and tossed the paper towards him, “They’re still talking about my parents, it’s all they have been doing for weeks” she replied. 

Izuku gently pushed the paper further away, not wanting to read it. 

“Still, this time they said that all the winner’s parents died and not just mine” Momo added. 

Izuku groaned, “Ughh... I really didn’t want that to come up” 

“Why not Izuku?” Momo asked, concerned. 

“The kids at my school... they’re not exactly fond of me on account of my quirklessness, they’re more than happy to get homework answers off me but basically nothing else... this’ll just give the few that do bother me more ammunition” Izuku replied sadly. 

“You know we’ll be able to get you transferred somewhere else if you want?” Momo reminded him. 

Izuku nodded, “I know, thanks Momo, I'll stick it out if I can” 

Momo smiled warmly as the door opened again and Sebas re-emerged with a tray with a bowl of cereal and a plate of toast and he set it in front of Izuku. “There you go Izuku, enjoy” he said, quickly backing away. 

Izuku nodded and smiled, “Will do Sebas, thank you” 

Sebas was about to return to the kitchen when the doors opened again and a dark eyed Mei staggered over to the table. This not exactly being an irregular event, Sebas knew how to deal with this quickly. 

As Mei took a seat opposite Izuku and laid her head on the table, Sebas quickly re-emerged from the kitchen holding a very large mug of coffee which he placed in front of the pink-haired inventor. 

Brought back to life by the scent, Mei quickly brought it to her lips and took a large gulp, the light coming back to her eyes as she sighed in relief. 

“Amazing as always... thanks a lot Sebas” she said with a smile. 

Sebas gave a small bow, “Will you be having your usual for breakfast today?” he asked. 

Mei nodded, “Yes please, thanks Sebas” 

Momo giggled as Sebas went back to the kitchen with a small smile on his face. 

“What are you laughing at?” Izuku asked, swallowing a mouthful of toast. 

“I was just thinking that the staff here must absolutely love you two” she replied. 

“How come?” Mei asked, cocking her head to the side cutely. 

“Well you’re both always so nice to them, always saying please and thank you” Momo explained. 

Izuku shrugged slightly, “Even if it’s their jobs that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t thank them for it” 

“Oh I'm not saying you shouldn’t I’m just saying I'm sure they appreciate it” Momo quickly added. 

Mei leant back in her chair and stretched her arms above her head, “Well they do a lot for us, it seems only fair” she said. 

Izuku nodded in agreement, “You looking forward to going back to school today?” he asked. 

Mei shook her head, “Nope, it’s a waste of time, I already know pretty much everything they can teach me and everybody thinks I'm a weirdo” 

“You are a weirdo” Izuku replied with a grin, “We just like you anyway” he added gesturing to himself and Momo. 

Momo quietly chortled but didn’t argue. 

Mei pouted but also didn’t object. “How about you then?” she asked. 

Izuku shook his head, “Oh no, it’s probably going to be really bad but what can I do?” 

Mei and Momo both frowned slightly at Sebas came back, holding a tray with two plates. One had several slices of toast while the other had three or four eggs worth of scrambled eggs and six slices of bacon. 

Considering it was Momo who had the food dependant quirk, everyone else was confused as to where exactly Mei put all the food she ate. 

Izuku just kind of assumed she needed it to be able to keep up with her normal energy levels. 

About an hour later, Izuku and Mei were in the back of the car with Sebas as he took them to school. Momo’s school was closer so she would get taken there a bit later. 

Spark had tried to come with Izuku, wanting to still be with him after what happened but Izuku was honestly more worried about him getting damaged by the kids at school so he didn’t let him. 

It was at that point he learned that Spark could apparently pout even without lips. 

A while later, Izuku waved goodbye to Sebas and Mei as they drove off after dropping Izuku outside the school. A few of the kids who also got there early noticed the very expensive car he got out of and was very confused. 

Unfortunately for Izuku, one of those kids was Bakugo. 

“HEY DEKU!” he shouted. 

Izuku flinched at the mere sound, he had really hoped he could avoid him for at least today... that apparently didn’t pan out. 

“So, they finally kicked you off that island did they?” Bakugo jeered. 

Izuku hesitantly turned to face him and shook his head, “No they didn’t, I chose to come back” 

Bakugo scoffed, “Oh right yeah, makes sense you wouldn’t stay there after your mom got killed” 

Izuku closed his eyes and felt his fists clench. “Don’t talk about her” he muttered. 

“About who? Your dead mom? Who cares? Not her anymore, she’s dead” Bakugo continued. Even though Izuku had his eyes closed, he could tell he had a vicious grin on his face. 

“I said... don’t talk about her” Izuku warned, voice louder now and his eyes meeting Bakugo’s. 

Bakugo’s grin turned into a scowl. “What are you gonna do Deku? Hit me? Like you could do anything without a quirk” 

Izuku’s fist clenched tighter. He wanted to hit him, he really did... but he knew he’d lose. Shaking his head and gritting his teeth, Izuku tried to push past him instead. 

Not being the kind to just let him go, Bakugo grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him against the wall. “Fucking listen up Deku, you should have stayed on that stupid island so I didn’t have to see you again, your mom died because of you and you’re never going to do anything good” 

That was too much for Izuku, he pushed Bakugo away with all his strength and threw a punch at his head. 

It was too predictable and Izuku still hesitated. That gave Bakugo all the time he needed he step out of the way and trip him up, then punching him in the back with explosive fists. 

Izuku just curled up in a ball and took it, not able to stand up. 

After a minute or so, Bakugo either got bored or decided not to push his luck anymore. He leant down next to Izuku and whispered to him. “Don’t come back to school tomorrow if you know what’s good for you” 

He left Izuku lying the floor, Izuku trembling in pain and gently sobbing. 

The rest of the day was no better than how it began. He would repeatedly hear jeers about his mom as he walked through the school although could never catch the ones who said it. 

The teachers ignored him as usual and Bakugo knocked his lunch out his hands. 

Still, at least the day went quickly and Sebas was already outside waiting for him. 

“Good day Izuku, how was your day at school?” he asked politely. 

Izuku didn’t reply, he just got in the car with his head down. 

“Hmm... not good” Sebas muttered to himself. 

Sebas climbed into the driver’s seat and they set off to go and pick Mei up. 

Sebas spoke again after a few minutes of silence. “Izuku... what happened today?” he asked quietly. 

Izuku shook his head and wiped a tear from his eye. “It doesn’t matter, there’s nothing I can do about it” he whispered. 

Sebas glanced at him in the rearview mirror. “It was that boy I've overheard you mention before... Bakugo wasn’t it?” 

Izuku nodded wordlessly. 

“We will talk more on this when we get back to the mansion... but keep your head up Izuku, you have already done something that he never could in winning the competition” Sebas replied, returning his eyes to the road. 

Izuku smiled softly for a moment before going back to looking out the window. 

After picking Mei and Momo up from school, Sebas led them back inside but then got Izuku to speak to him on their own shortly after. 

“Who exactly is this Bakugo? And why does he mistreat you?” Sebas asked softly, kneeling down to Izuku’s level. 

Izuku sighed quietly and kicked at the ground, “Years ago, we used to be friends... before we found out I was quirkless... he got a super powerful quirk, one that lets him fire explosions out of his hands... and I was quirkless, he just decided I was useless and started bullying me for it” he explained reluctantly. 

“I see... I went through something similar when I was your age” Sebas replied with a kind smile. 

Izuku looked up at Sebas in confusion, “What do you mean?” he asked. 

“Well... I’m quirkless too” he replied with a smile. “It wasn’t as rare as it is these days but it was still irregular” 

“You’re quirkless too?” Izuku asked, surprised. 

Sebas nodded, “I am, yet I did well for myself, I became a scientist at Yaoyorozu Industries and went on to become their head butler” 

Izuku smiled, “You didn’t need a quirk to do those things... so why would I need a quirk to become a hero?” he wondered aloud. 

Sebas nodded and laid a hand on his shoulder, “That’s right Izuku, with your mind, you could do almost anything” 

Izuku smiled and nodded before his expression became a frown. “Well... not everything” he muttered. 

“What could you not do?” Sebas asked. 

“Well... Bakugo’s still stronger than me... I couldn’t beat him in a fight if I tried” Izuku replied. 

Sebas grinned slightly, “Well then the answer is simple... fight dirty” 

The next morning, just like the day before, Izuku arrived at school early. As he walked through the gate of the school he felt the weight of the watch he was wearing on his arm. 

Almost immediately, Bakugo spotted him and stormed over to him. “DEKU! THE HELL ARE YOU DOING BACK HERE!” he shouted from less than three feet away. 

Izuku smiled, “Hi Bakugo, I'd actually come to see you” 

Bakugo grinned, “Oh really? Want more of what I gave you last time?” 

Izuku shook his head, “Actually... I was thinking of something... a little bit different” 

Bakugo looked at him, puzzled, when Izuku threw a handful of dust into his eyes. Bakugo immediately screeched in anger and as one hand went to rub his eyes, the other thrust out towards Izuku and fired an explosion at him. 

With Bakugo temporarily blinded, it was child’s play for Izuku to dodge out the way. As he did so, he allowed the watch to drop into his hand, the face over his knuckles and he lashed out with a punch. 

The metal watch face collided with Bakugo’s nose with a loud crunch and a small spray of blood. 

Bakugo immediately dropped to the floor in pain but Izuku didn’t stop. He hit him again, still in the nose and the blood only started pouring from his nose even faster. 

With the blonde bully lying on the ground, screaming in agony with his nose almost certainly broken, Izuku just casually adjusted his clothes, put the watch back on properly and turned and walked out the school gate back to the car that was still waiting there. 

Obviously, the school tried to punish him the day after however Sebas informed them that if they were to attempt to do anything, the entire force of the Yaoyorozu’s and their lawyers would fall upon the school for allowing discrimination against the quirkless. 

He also informed them that Izuku would no longer be a student there. 

With a discussion between them the evening after Izuku beat Bakugo to a bloody pulp, the three kids all agreed with Sebas that it was more or less completely pointless for them to continue attending school. 

With that decided, Sebas would arrange for them to learn under private tutors and their education would progress as fast as they were able to do so. 

It had only been a week into studying with their tutors but it had been discovered Izuku and Momo were both already roughly at the level of a high school graduate while Mei was at around the level of a first-year high schooler. 

The kids all much preferred their new style of learning, it actually allowed them to use their intelligence at a level they were more on the level of. 

Izuku had just finished his daily studying with his tutor when he stumbled upon a very antagonised looking Momo. 

“Momo? What’s the matter?” he asked. 

Momo turned to look at him, a furious glare on her face. “Izuku... this is terrible” she spat out. 

“What is? What’s wrong?” he asked again, holding his hands out placatingly. 

“I just heard from one of the scientists at the company... after my parents died, the shareholders used the current lack of a majority shareholder to force the company to change production” she explained, voice filled with venom. 

“To what?” Izuku asked. 

“All kinds of things... but mainly weapons they want to sell to the army” she spat out. “They’re trying to milk the company for as much money as they can” 

“What? Can we not stop them?” Izuku replied in shock. 

Momo shook her head, “No, until I can use the shares my parents left me there’s nothing I can do” 

Izuku growled in frustration and thought for a few moments. “We were planning on using Yaoyorozu Industries resources to become heroes weren’t we?” he asked. 

“Yeah, having access to all the equipment would have made it much easier” Mom replied, voice having become weary. 

“And now they probably won’t let us do that until you can tell them to get lost” Izuku continued. 

“More or less yes, what’s your point?” Momo asked. 

“Well... even though you don’t get a say in the company, do you still get your share of profits?” Izuku questioned. 

“I will do yes, why?” Momo asked, wondering where exactly he was going with this. 

“Well then why don’t we make a new facility here? One they can’t control?” he suggested. 

“That’s... actually a pretty good idea... the estate finances are practically overflowing at the minute, my parents didn’t generally like investing their money on many things” Momo replied with a nod. 

“Indeed, there is much unused ground on the estate and even a natural unused cave system beneath it if you wished to go that route” Sebas added, walking past at the time. 

Something occurred to Izuku. “...are you telling us to build the Batcave?” 

Sebas chuckled, “No, I'm merely saying it’s an option” he replied. 

“It certainly is although we will still gain access to the company’s workshops when I turn fourteen” Momo added. 

“Then why don’t we use the company’s resources for public production and we use the estate workshop for our hero work?” Izuku suggested. 

Momo thought for a few seconds before nodding. “That sounds like an excellent idea, I think we will do that” 

Sebas nodded, “Very well, we can decide what you want constructing and what equipment is necessary later but one thing to keep in mind is that when you regain control of the company you will all be in the public eye” 

Momo nodded, “That’s true but what exactly are you referring to?” 

“Well, due to your wealth and connections, people will be looking to you as a member of high society, Izuku and Mei too if only because of their connection to you” Sebas reasoned. “With that in mind... I think it would be best if we continue your teachings in the ways of the wealthy and the elite” 

Izuku was growing slightly nervous, “And what does that mean exactly?” 

“How to conduct yourselves before esteemed guests, lessons of art, culture and music, even things such as table settings in different situations” Sebas explained. 

Izuku slowly nodded, “Alright then... I taught myself to build a robot with books and scrap metal, I can cope with that... right?” 

As it turned out, for Izuku and Mei, learning how to fit in with the upper echelons of society was far more difficult then they could have expected. Momo took to it like a duck to water, not exactly shocking given her upbringing but it still frustrated them. 

Still, over the years, they started to make progress in both their ‘nobility training’ as Mei called it and their academic studies. 

In fact, by the time they had all become fourteen years old, each of them held more than one university degree. 

Izuku had earned degrees in Robotics, AI research and Mechanical Engineering. Mei had a degree in Mechanical Engineering along with Izuku but also in Weapons Development. Momo meanwhile had attained a degree in Business Management, Economics and also in Theoretical Materials. 

Before even regaining control of the company, the three kids had appeared in the public eye as young geniuses, the universities not exactly keeping quiet about the terrifyingly intelligent students they had produced. 

Within a year of it being suggested, the compound beneath the Yaoyorozu estate had been completed and christened by Izuku as ‘The Foundry’. They each had their own laboratory and workshop, as well as a production line and testing chambers. 

Given that Momo’s share of the company profits was both only annually but also most likely skimmed off the top of, Izuku decided to begin mass production of his Dragonfly drones, the same kind as Spark. 

He started marketing them commercially and industrially, taking full advantage of the prestige given to him as the second place winner of a worldwide technology competition. 

In the first month of selling Dragonfly units, he had sold just under a thousand. By the end of the first year, he had sold over twenty million worldwide. 

It shocked even him at how popular his Dragonflies were to people. They were mostly bought by regular everyday people for assistance around the home or even as a kind of robotic pet but they were also used in the workplace, especially as couriers or messengers as Izuku had installed an actual speech module in the updated models. 

And no, he did not update Spark. Spark was the first one he had ever built and Izuku loved him. 

With the added revenue brought into the estate from Izuku’s production, their research into hero equipment advanced by leaps and bounds. 

Mei was in charge of weaponry, utility equipment and armour, that being her field of expertise. 

Momo studied and produced different kinds of materials which would typically be used by Mei in her productions. 

Izuku meanwhile had been hard at work designing different models of robot for all kinds of uses although none were beyond prototyping stages yet as he lacked the ability to mass produce them as he was also focusing on production of Dragonfly drones. 

And even with all of this work they were constantly doing, that wasn’t all of it. They were also training their bodies in preparation for heroism. They learned different martial arts from all across the world from the best trainers money could hire. 

They each learned to shoot from ex special forces soldiers and they had a sneaking suspicion the one that Sebas had hired to teach them bladework had been an assassin of some sort. 

It had barely been a week after Momo’s fourteenth birthday when the board of directors had called their quarterly shareholders meeting. 

They had called it earlier than normal in an attempt to essentially intimidate Momo into not interfering with their changes to the company. 

They expected it to be easy, for her to be a pushover. 

They were wrong. 

Momo was the last to arrive at the meeting, not late but able to make a dramatic entrance once all the other shareholders had already arrived. Izuku and Mei were with her and all three of them were dressed in the finest clothes they owned. 

Izuku and Mei were both dressed in fine white shirts with black blazers although Izuku also wore a light grey vest. They also had a pair of black slacks and incredibly shiny black oxford shoes. 

Momo was wearing similar attire although it looked much more businesswoman like. Still very fine but with stripes running down the blazer and skirt. 

There were a few snickers from around the room but they soon died down once Momo began to speak. 

She berated them for their selfish and destructive business practices, saying that the selling of weapons to the military was not what their company stood for. 

One of the more elderly shareholders, a man named Imada Juro, one known to Momo as he had been a major shareholder in her parent’s day, claimed that she was merely a child that knew nothing of how to run a business and that they had never been more profitable. 

Momo replied that it was indeed true that the company was making the most profit it ever had although also said that they had completely neglected her parent’s areas of focus. Those were advances in medical science and hero support equipment. 

While they were not as profitable, they helped far more people than selling high tech weaponry to the army could ever do. 

Juro scoffed, saying that the army would be the ones keeping them safe if the troubles with China that had been slowly brewing broke out into conflict. He asked what she intended to do about that. 

Momo just sweetly smiled and informed them that they no longer had to worry about that as with her majority shares, she would be overturning every decision they had made over the past six years and would be reforming the company back to what it should be. 

She finished with essentially saying that they were as good as fired as there was no way they could overturn any decision she made. 

With that done, the three well-dressed young teenagers left the boardroom, nothing more to be said. 

Juro and the other shareholders just stared at the closed door behind them in shock before Juro slammed his fist onto the solid wood table. 

“Damn those accursed brats... they’ll regret this day...” he muttered furiously. 


	5. The Interview and the Red Scars

Momo was sat in her office in the Yaoyorozu estate, going over the most recent shareholders reports and smiling at the fact that the company was slowly resembling its former self as it was under her parents when a panicked Mei burst into the room. 

“Momo... we’ve got a problem” she panted, slightly out of breath, she’d probably run all the way here. 

Momo put the report down and looked up at her pink-haired best friend, “Mei... my entire life is dealing with the problems that you and Izuku cause... this is nothing new, what’s the problem this time?” 

“Izuku’s gone native again” Mei answered. 

Momo sighed and lowered her head into her palm. “How long has he been in the foundry?” she asked. 

“It’ll be two weeks today” Mei replied. 

Momo cringed, “Ooh, that’s bad even for his standards... when did he last eat?” 

“Thursday” Mei replied. 

“Oh, only one day? That’s not so ba-” 

“Last week” Mei interrupted. 

“Oh that’s worse” Momo spluttered. “Okay yeah we need to get him out of there... who’s turn was it?” 

Mei just stared at her, “Why do you think I'm here?” 

“Oh...” 

Momo apprehensively stood before the thick armoured doors to the Foundry. Izuku going native like this was an uncommon event but it had happened before. He had an unfortunate habit of delving too deep into his work and getting lost in it. 

The worst occurrence of this was in the weeks before the public release of the Dragonfly drones, desperate to make sure the launch went flawlessly, Izuku was tinkering on the drones and their programming for just over a week with no food or rest. 

Promptly followed by falling into a coma for several days. 

This was going to be much worse. 

Taking in a deep breath, Momo placed her hand against the door. The Foundry was probably one of the most secure installations on the planet. The door was made of solid Beskar and the walls even had thin Beskar plates set into them. 

The door was biometrically coded to open only for four people on the entire planet, Momo, Mei, Izuku and Sebas and would not even open if they were forced to open it as it read their heart rate and if it detected stress it would remain closed. 

The main reason it was coded for Sebas too was because on occasion he also had to go in to pull Momo or Mei out of their work. 

They had been guilty of doing the same thing Izuku was currently doing. 

Momo walked into the antechamber of the foundry, passing through decontamination and a second layer of security doors. 

Once she made it through those, she walked towards Izuku’s section of the foundry. 

They had agreed to stay out of each other’s sections unless they were working on a joint project or if an important enough issue arose. 

This definitely qualified as important enough. 

As she passed through yet another layer of security, she walked into what Izuku referred to as “The Production Line”. This was where his robots and drones were mass-produced before their takeover of Yaoyorozu industries. Since then, Dragonfly drones had been produced and sold by the company with Izuku taking most of the profits from them. 

Currently, Izuku was preparing for a launch of a new kind of service droid, one he called a “Protocol Droid” which could apparently speak every language known to man, even in local accents and dialects. 

However as far as she knew he’d already finished the preparations for the launch so she was unsure of what exactly he was doing. 

“Izuku?” she called out, her voice echoing in the large chamber. 

There came a loud clatter from deeper into the room before a high pitched modulated voice responded. 

"WHaT meaT LIpPEd CRETin Is gURglINg iN HeRE!?"

Momo sighed in exasperation, this wasn’t the first time Izuku had gone native although it was the first time he’d hooked up a voice modulator to himself. 

“It’s Momo, you need to come out for a while, have a nap” she called back out. 

A few seconds passed before Izuku revealed himself. His eyes were dark and wild, the look of a man who had seen the face of God and wanted to stab it. 

"WHat? NaP? INcoNceiVABle, I HAvE ToO mUch WorK TO Do!" Izuku warbled. 

Momo slowly approached, her palms held in front of her as if she was approaching an aggressive animal... which considering the circumstances she might as well be. “Izuku... you know the interview and launch days are coming up, you need to be in the right condition to attend” 

Izuku waved a hand in the air. "soCIAl inTERaCtIon? wASte Of TimE, I haVE WORk To DO inSTEAd" 

Momo nodded, having learned that when he was in this state it was fruitless to argue with him. In this state, Izuku was simultaneously both sides of the “It’s impossible to win an argument against an idiot and it’s impossible to win an argument against a genius” saying. 

“You’re right of course Izuku but if you do this then you’ll have much more funding for your work, you’ll be able to do even more great things” Momo explained, voice soft and soothing. 

Izuku stroked his chin, the voice modulator over his mouth blinking slightly. "hmm... VERy weLL, pERHapS A naP WiLL bE neCESSARy" he relented. 

Momo smiled and nodded, “Good, Spark? Put him to sleep” she commanded. 

Izuku’s eyes grew confused for a moment before a sudden burst of electricity shot through him and he passed out, revealing the hovering form of Spark just behind him. 

Momo nodded proudly, “Good work as usual Spark” she congratulated. 

Spark bleeped happily, bouncing up and down in the air. 

Momo walked over to Izuku to examine him. 

With all their training to become heroes over the past eight years as well as their own mechanical work, each of the three young geniuses had become much stronger than the vast majority of people their age, Momo especially. Right now however, Izuku looked anything but strong. 

The bags under his eyes were terrifyingly large and he was practically skin and bones. 

She knelt down to examine the voice modulator in his mouth and sighed in relief. “Well, at least he didn’t go far enough to have it permanently implanted” she muttered to herself, carefully removing the device and tossing it to the side. 

Cracking her knuckles together, Momo slid her hands underneath Izuku’s unconscious body and picked him up as if he weighed nothing. While he most likely had lost at least ten kilograms over the past two weeks Momo was pretty sure she still could have regardless. 

She’d done it before. 

Izuku woke up again a few days later, sleep bringing energy back to his gaunt body and he spent the next four days regaining his physicality that he lost in his temporary bout of insanity which were more common for each of them than they would like to admit. 

Sebas was very worried about each of them. 

Still though, he managed to make himself just about presentable enough for the first day of their busy week. 

Over the span of a week, they had several interviews, speeches and announcements to make. The first of which was headed by Momo and it was an interview about beginning a new charity. 

This was a project that was near and dear to all of their hearts but to Izuku’s especially. 

As Sebas drove the three to the interview, Izuku took a while to reflect. 

They were all sixteen years old now, it had been eight years since their parents had been killed at I-island. Izuku and Mei still recalled how it was to grow up comparatively dirt poor compared to Momo which is why it was still strange to them that now they wore the finest clothes, ate the finest food and mingled with the elite of society. 

But what was really strange to both of them was that by now it seemed almost normal. As if they’d been born into this life. 

He quietly chuckled to himself, he was currently on his way to a five-star hotel to take part in an interview with his two best friends about a charity they were beginning. He couldn’t have dreamed anything like this would ever happen to him. 

“So remember, if they ask anything that doesn’t relate to the charity, give them a brief answer and try to steer them back towards it” Momo reminded them. 

Mei groaned, adjusting the blazer and vest she wore. “We know Momo, this is only like the eightieth time you’ve reminded us today” 

Izuku chuckled and patted her on the shoulder, “Cut her some slack, she’s been working really hard on this, she just wants it to go right” 

Mei pouted and folded her arms over her chest, “We’ve been working hard too you know” she replied childishly. 

“I know we have, and I'm almost certain you’ll be exactly the same tomorrow when you announce your work so relax a bit alright?” Izuku said calmly. 

Mei sighed quietly and nodded, “Yeah sorry, I'm just stressed about it” 

“We all are Mei, it’ll be alright” Momo reassured her. 

“We are nearly at the hotel and the interview begins in half an hour” Sebas informed them. 

The three teens all nodded. “Alright then... let’s do this” Izuku muttered. 

Chitose Kizuki grinned at the camera as the lights switched, signalling they were now live. 

“Good afternoon Japan, I’m Chitose Kizuku and today, I am speaking with three of the youngest business and tech moguls in the history of Japan, Momo Yaoyorozu, Mei Hatsume and Izuku Midoriya” she announced cheerfully. 

The three teens all nodded politely and smiled, careful to remain sat upright. Sebas had practically beat etiquette into them in the previous days and they weren’t planning on letting him down. 

“Thank you all for making time to speak with me today” Kizuki continued giving them all a beautiful smile. 

Momo nodded again, “It’s our pleasure, thank you for allowing us to speak today” 

“Now then, I know you wish to talk about your new charity but if you don’t mind, I would like to ask you all a few questions about your past, for the benefit of the viewers at home” Kizuki requested. 

Momo grimaced imperceptibly at the topic of conversation being hijacked this early but nodded sweetly. “If you wouldn’t mind, I'd like to start with yourself Miss Yaoyorozu... now, everyone at home is familiar with the horrible events on I-island eight years ago that left you all orphans... I have here a quote from an insider source from Yaoyorozu industries from just over two years ago that reads ‘The girl is nothing but a shadow of her parents and she has no business attempting to run a company’” she read aloud. “What would you like to say in response to that?” 

“Well... I suppose I would say that my actions over the past two years have more than proved that wrong, together we have reformed the company back to its original purpose, people over profit. That’s what my parents believed in, they did not do what they did for money, they did it to help people and that is what I want to also” Momo answered after a moment of thought. 

“A very noble sentiment miss Yaoyorozu but do you think you can live up to it?” Kizuki asked. 

Momo nodded, “I do, and the charity we are here to talk about today I believe will only prove my commitment to this mission” 

Kizuki nodded, her beautiful smile never fading as she turned to Mei. “Miss Hatsume, I understand that tomorrow you will be announcing some of your own work that will become commercially available... would there be any chance of a sneak peak of some of them?” 

Mei shook her head politely with a smile, “Unfortunately not Kizuki, I wish I could, I really do but I have to stay tight-lipped for now” 

Kizuki pouted playfully and nodded. “Very well, a real shame but I suppose the people at home will have to remain on the edge of their seats for a while longer” 

Mei giggled and nodded, “I suppose they will... but believe me, it’s worth the wait, this has been my biggest project along with Momo and I hope it will revolutionise the way we see power” 

Kizuku squealed excitedly, “Well I can’t wait for tomorrow then, you’ve given me goosebumps” she joked before turning to Izuku. 

“Mr Midoriya... I apologise if this is too personal... but I believe I am right in saying you are quirkless?” she began. 

Izuku nodded, “I am, I see no reason to hide or be ashamed of it” he confirmed. 

“Is it not difficult? Being quirkless in a world obsessed with quirks?” she asked. 

Izuku thought for a moment, “Hmm... at times it can be... more so when I was young rather than now” he replied. “But I've always believed that, while quirks are amazing things... they aren’t necessary... after all, look at everything humans accomplished without the use of quirks, the ancient wonders of the world, medicine, even putting humans in space... that hasn’t been done since the advent of quirks” 

As Izuku claimed that he believed that quirks aren’t necessary, he noticed the briefest flicker of anger appear on Kizuki’s face before it disappeared. 

Her momentary anger gone, Kizuki nodded. “I see... that isn’t exactly a popular way of thinking these days” 

Izuku nodded, “It isn’t but I believe you also need to look at the facts... before the dawn of quirks humans were maybe... twenty years away from colonising another planet... after quirks appeared, the entire world stagnated and decayed for decades, even now, two hundred years later, we are still at a lower level of technology than we were before quirks appeared with only a few exceptions” 

Kizuku grimaced for a split second but nodded once more. “I see... you do make a good point but would most people not argue that quirks have in many ways made certain technologies obsolete?” she asked. 

Izuku nodded, “I’m sure most people would argue and that I'd agree with them, certain technologies now are almost useless due to quirks, for example, most surgeries these days are done using quirks in some ways resulting in more lives saved than ever before” 

“So you are saying that quirks are more important than technology?” Kizuki questioned. 

Izuku shook his head, “No I'm not, I believe they both have their own uses and are equally as important, for example, what Mei will be revealing tomorrow would not be possible without the use of Momo’s quirk but at the same time, just her quirk along would not be capable of creating it” he cleared his throat before continuing. “I believe the human mind and body can be a more powerful weapon than any quirk if used properly” 

“I see, well those are some interesting beliefs indeed, now then I think it’s time to get on to the reason we are here, your new charity” Kizuki replied, turning to Momo. 

“Yes, the Prospect Academy” Momo confirmed. 

“Would you mind explaining what exactly it is and it’s purpose?” Kizuki asked. 

Momo nodded, “Of course, it will be a shelter and place of learning and rehabilitation for the poor, disenfranchised, villains who wish to reform and the quirkless” she explained. “Society in this day and age... is entirely dominated by quirks, this leaves some people at severe disadvantages, in particular, the quirkless and those with quirks deemed useless or villainous” 

Kizuki nodded, “And if I may ask, why exactly would you wish to help such people?” 

“Because they are people too and they still deserve a life like everyone else... so many people become villains because they are seen that way their whole lives and they know nothing else... and did you know that over eighty percent of quirkless people attempt suicide before they are eighteen years old?” Momo replied indignantly. 

Kizuki cringed slightly, “No... I didn’t know that” 

“And why would you? Society doesn’t care about us” Izuku added. 

Momo nodded in agreement, “But Izuku is proof that quirkless people can still do great things with their lives, all they need is the opportunity and that is what we hope to provide” 

Kizuku nodded, “And you said you would help reforming villains as well?” 

“Of course, today’s prison systems are all about punishment, not rehabilitation, if villains have a genuine wish to improve... why should we deny them that? The kind of person brave enough to make that decision most certainly deserves help in doing so” Momo replied. “And as for people with ‘villainous quirks’... much like quirkless people, we believe that they can also do anything they want with the right opportunities that may be denied to them” 

Momo took a deep breath before continuing. “For example, we already have two such people who wish to attend for those very reasons, both are the same age as us as a matter of fact” she informed Kizuki. “One is a boy named Hitoshi Shinso, he was abandoned by his parents several years ago and has been living in a shelter ever since, all because his quirk allows him to brainwash people” she explained. “He wants nothing more than to become a hero but because of his circumstances, that would normally be nearly impossible for him” 

Kizuki nodded, “A brainwashing quirk? That sounds like it could be incredible for a hero” 

“Indeed, yet everyone assumes that with a quirk like that, he will become a villain... he won’t, he is far too strong-willed for that... he just needs a bit of help to get there” Momo replied. 

Despite herself, Kizuki smiled slightly, the first genuine smile of the day. “And the other one? You mentioned two” 

Izuku smiled and leant forward, “The other is a girl named Toga Himiko, her quirk allows her to transform into people after consuming their blood” he explained. “However, an unfortunate side effect of her quirk is that it makes her crave blood, almost like an addiction... and like many addicts, if she doesn’t get it on a regular basis, she grows violent and starts to lose herself. She doesn’t want to hurt people so she is forced to scavenge from butchers shops to try and get any leftover blood to try and quell her need for blood” 

Kizuki frowned sadly, “That sounds a very difficult and lonely life” 

Momo nodded, “It is, which is why we want to help her, at the Academy, she will be provided donated blood bought from local hospitals and will be able to get her life back on track” 

Kizuku smiled, “It does indeed sound a noble cause... but it can’t be a cheap one to run” 

“No it isn’t, we of course want as many donations as people are willing to offer... but even if we never get a penny, we have set aside enough funding to provide for over three hundred people for fifteen years, that is more than enough time to improve the lives of so many people” Momo explained. 

Mei leant forward before she began talking. “The Academy is ready to open its doors today and we already have forty people moving in today but it can house two hundred” 

“We have dedicated carers and teachers, as well as tutors and tradesmen who can help teach them skills for employment in their future” Momo explained, “We even constructed a training ground for usage of quirks if people want to train them for use as heroes or other fields of employment” 

Kizuki was speechless, “This is... this is an incredibly generous and noble endeavour... what exactly was it that made you do this?” 

“It was the right thing to do” all three of them replied at the same time. 

Less than twenty minutes later, they were back in the car with Sebas in the front. They were about to set off as Momo was making a phone call. 

The phone rang for several seconds before an answer came. “Hi Miss Yaoyorozu, I saw your interview on TV, you all did very well” 

Momo giggled, “Thank you but how many times do I have to tell you to call me Momo?” 

“More times than you have done apparently” came the jovial voice. 

Momo giggled again and shook her head, “How is the opening going?” 

“Oh great actually, everyone here has been working so hard and all the guests have been really excited, Shinso and Toga especially, they were both really touched by the kind things you all said about them by the way” she replied. 

“I’m glad, we’ll be there to see everyone in about an hour so we’ll see you then Fuyumi” Momo said. 

“Alright, bye miss Yaoyorozu” Fuyumi replied before hanging up. 

Izuku chuckled to himself, it still surprised him they somehow managed to get Endeavour’s eldest daughter to be the headmistress of the academy, her mere presence gave the whole thing legitimacy. 

“Alright Sebas, we’re ready to go, to the Academy please” Momo requested. 

Sebas nodded, “Very well, we shall set off immediately” 

The car barely made it a hundred metres down the road before the van slammed into the side of it. 

The occupants of the vehicle were all left disorientated from the impact, most of the windows smashed and the side of the car buckled in. They were all uninjured but were still dazed. 

Izuku just managed to clear his head in time to see the door next to him get wrenched open and the barrel of a submachine gun point inside the car. Understandably, he froze. 

A pair of black glove-wearing hands reached in and yanked him out the car while the same was happening to Momo and Mei. 

He tried to struggle but he was thrown into the back of the van, felt a heavy impact on the back of his head and everything went black. 

Aizawa was the first on the scene, having been in the crowd outside the hotel to see them off. They hadn’t known he was there, Sebas had invited him to see them, just like he had done many times before. Always watching, never seen. 

This time though he deeply wished that he was closer. 

He couldn’t reach the van in time to stop it speeding off and it didn’t even have plates for him to remember. 

He dashed to the car to find Sebas still in the front seat, dazed yet unharmed. The three teens were all gone. 

“Shit... SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT!” he shouted furiously. 

Sebas groaned, clutching his head with a hand. “Ow christ... that wasn’t fun” he muttered. 

“SEBAS! THEY’RE GONE!” Aizawa shouted. 

Sebas’ eyes snapped open, suddenly aware for a moment before a slight grin broke his face. “That... is not as much a problem as you might expect” 

“Wh... what?” Aizawa spluttered, both stressed and angry. 

“We had expected something like this to happen for some time now, we had a plan” he explained, removing a device from inside his blazer. “This is a tracking device, miss Yaoyorozu can make a device using her quirk which will appear on this so we can find them, unfortunately until that happens we can do nothing” 

Aizawa spluttered, not able to articulate his thoughts. 

Sebas climbed out the car and rested a hand on his shoulder, “Calm yourself man, for now we need to be ready to act when we receive the signal, I want you to get in contact with heroes and the police, get e team ready to storm in as soon as we receive a signal” 

Aizawa nodded, taking in a deep breath and pulling out his phone. 

“Although I don’t expect to get a signal until they’ve dealt with the kidnappers themselves” Sebas muttered. 

Aizawa paused, his thumb over the call button. “What do you mean?” he asked. 

“Well, they have been training to become heroes for the past eight years with some of the finest trainers in the world... if I know them, they will see this as a test of their skills” Sebas explained. 

Despite the situation, Aizawa chuckled, “Oh great, more reckless future students of mine then... well, they’ll probably make great heroes” 

Sebas shook his head, “I must disagree with you Aizawa, they are not heroes, they are warriors” 

Izuku woke up from his gunstock induced nap pretty quickly to find he had a bag over his head. He feigned staying unconscious so he could listen to what was going on around him. 

It wasn’t that long until the van stopped and he was forcefully picked up and practically dragged out of the van. A few minutes later he was dumped on the ground and the bag was pulled off his head. 

He opened his eyes a few minutes later, after the sounds of movement had faded to see that he was in a concrete room with no furniture apart from a chair and a barred door, not too dissimilar to those used in prisons. 

He could just see a guard standing just to the side of the door. He wore all black standard looking military equipment. A bulletproof vest, helmet, a balaclava covering the face, a holstered handgun and a submachine gun in his hands. 

Glancing around and double-checking he was alone, Izuku took stock. Considering he was alive that meant two things, this was either ransom or they were going to torture him to death. 

Neither of those things was ideal so he decided to would be best to escape. 

His arms were tied behind his back with cable ties. Izuku grinned, that was a bad move on their part. 

Sebas was an excellent butler but he was also a paranoid one. Considering the situation they were currently in however, it was wise. 

Sebas had forced each of them to have a carbon fibre wire sewn into their clothes for this kind of situation. In his case, it was in the waistband of his trousers. 

Using his fingernail to pick the threading slightly, he managed to get a hold of it between two fingers and pull it out. Wrapping it around his hands, he sawed it across the cable ties as quietly as he could. 

After a few minutes, the cable ties snapped, leaving his hands free. 

Remaining where he was on the ground, Izuku gave the guard a closer look. He saw a shape in one of his pockets that distinctly looked like a set of keys. 

Typical bad guy minion logic dictates that one of those will be the key to his cell right? 

Carefully getting to his feet, Izuku crept up to the door and peered past the guard both ways. His cell was at the end of a short corridor and there were no other doors or guards meaning that as long as he was quiet, he could definitely get out. 

Putting his hands behind his back to pretend he was still restrained, he slammed his body against the cell door. “WHO THE HELL ARE YOU? WHERE AM I?” he demanded angrily. 

The guard flinched from the sudden noise and, just as Izuku hoped, got angry. “What the... SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU QUIRKLESS BASTARD!” the guard shouted back. 

The first thing that Izuku noticed was that the guard spoke in accented English, specifically American. He also noticed a patch on the man’s uniform, one of a red crescent moon-like shape on a black shield. 

He knew this symbol, he’d seen it in several threat assessment meetings he’d had with Mei and Momo, it was an American PMC called Red Scar. They were mercenaries in all but name, taking any job no matter how dark or gruesome for the right price. 

They were even rumoured to have purged a village in Russia for an oil oligarch so he could steal the land several years previously. 

That left Izuku with little to no guilt over what he was about to do. 

The guard turned around to return to his duty when Izuku reached out between the bars, wrapping the wire around the man’s neck. 

The sharp metal wire cut deep into the man’s neck within seconds, combined with Izuku planting one of his feet against his back for more leverage to pull left the man choking on his own blood. 

In less than ten seconds, the man’s carotid arteries were both opened and his body went limp as his life drained from him. 

Using the wire in one hand to keep the body upright, Izuku searched the man’s pockets with the other. 

He did indeed find the keys and released the body upon doing so. He got lucky, the third key on the ring opened his cell and he swung the door open. 

Pushing the body out the way with the door, he stepped out into the corridor. He took a second to listen carefully to make sure he got away with it. Hearing nothing, he knelt down to the man to search his body. He took the man’s radio, knife and submachine gun. 

He examined the gun carefully. “Hmm, Heckler & Koch 9mm parabellum MP5” Izuku muttered to himself. “Pretty old school but still solid enough” 

He was in the middle of attempting to remove the man’s bulletproof vest when the radio blared to life and another American voice came through. 

“Delta Three, this is Delta Actual, both the other prisoners have escaped confinement, ensure the remaining prisoner does not escape” 

Izuku smirked, so Momo and Mei had gotten out too. 

He heard the sounds of submachine gun and pistol fire echoing down the corridor. 

Izuku checked the magazine of the gun in his hands and pulled back the charging handle, making sure a bullet was loaded. 

“Delta Three, report!” came the stern voice again. 

Izuku brought the radio to his mouth and spoke in perfect English. “Sorry Delta Actual... too late, Delta Three’s already dead” he mocked. “The ‘quirkless bastard’ was too much for him to handle” 

“Oh shit” the voice went again before the radio went dead. 

Tossing the radio to the side and grabbing a few spare magazines, Izuku crouched behind the corpse for cover, holding it in a sitting position and resting the gun on its shoulder, pointing it down the corridor towards the sound of approaching boots. 

“That’s right, come get some motherfuckers” he muttered with a grin. 


	6. Red Scarred

Izuku tossed the empty SMG to the side as the smoke from the muzzle cleared. Three other guards had come running around the corridor towards his cell although none seemed to have realised that he would be waiting to ambush them. 

The first two were cut down in a single burst of fully automatic fire, their body armour not doing much to protect them against a hail of lead. 

The last one managed to duck back around the corner in time to take cover. 

He span around the corner to shoot when he heard the empty magazine clatter against the ground but was unprepared for the handgun that was in Izuku’s other hand, catching a bullet to the forehead and crumpling to the ground instantly, this one not wearing a helmet for whatever reason. 

Izuku listened for a minute to make sure there were no more approaching guards. He couldn’t hear any boots but he could still hear the sound of echoing gunfire coming from somewhere else in the building. 

He had enough confidence in the girls to know they could handle themselves for at least a few more minutes. 

He used that time to remove the bulletproof vest from the merc he had garrotted and put it on, also putting on the pistol holster he had. 

Picking up the previously discarded radio again, Izuku started cycling through the frequencies, trying to find something useful. 

After a while he found it. 

“Delta Actual, we’ve got one of the prisoners pinned down but she’s taken out half my squad” someone reported in a panicked tone. 

“Roger that, all available units get to sub-level 2 and help neutralise the prisoner, everyone still searching for the other one, carry on your search” came the response. 

Right, Izuku needed to move now. 

As he passed over the pile of corpses he leant down to grab one of their rifles and some magazines which he quickly put inside the pouches on his vest. 

He was in a rush so he didn’t know exactly what kind of rifle it was, only that it was some variant of the M4. 

He did briefly wonder why police and militaries alike were still using such outdated weaponry. Maybe the advent of quirks that could be used for combat made the gun increasingly obsolete. 

Well... Izuku felt he just proved that wrong. 

From the looks of the four he’d just killed, all of them had quirks. 

Despite the situation, he smirked, he’d come out of top against four adults with quirks who were all almost certainly more experienced than him. 

Plus these guys were basically a legalised army of hired guns, he didn’t feel any guilt in killing them. 

Izuku turned a corner to see a single guard standing beside a door, looking the opposite way down the corridor towards where the gunfire was coming from. 

Izuku slung the rifle over his shoulder and pulled out the knife he took from the first guard. 

With practiced stealth, he snuck up behind the guard, going completely unnoticed until it was too late. 

Izuku reached up and clamped a hand over his mouth as he plunged the knife into the side of his neck. He felt the guard let out a brief muffled scream but his body gave out nearly instantly and his arms went limp. 

Briefly crouching to wipe the blood off the blade on the man’s uniform, he looked into the room he was guarding. It was another prison cell style barred door but what was really interesting was the fact that it seemed to be the entrance to an armoury. 

Izuku grinned with delight, this would be helpful. 

Obviously the door was locked but, as luck would have it, these mercs didn’t seem to be the smartest and so the guard had the keys to open the door on him. 

Izuku walking into the concrete chamber and looked upon the racks of rifles and equipment like a child in a toy store. 

“Well fuck me... these bastards are ready for world war four” he muttered with a grin. 

There was a lot here that would help. 

He was happy enough with his rifle and handgun but one thing he was unfortunately lacking in was explosives. 

Luckily there was a box full of frag grenades sat on one of the various metal tables. 

Izuku grabbed half a dozen or so, clipping them to his belt. He also saw a few canisters which he determined to be smoke grenades. Grabbing those as well he continued searching the room. 

He found a few more useful pieces of equipment, thermal goggles which would be very useful with the smoke grenades. He grabbed three pairs, putting the straps of one over his head while shoving the other two in a pack he grabbed. 

As the radio blared back into life saying that the Red Scars were about to try and push forward against the prisoner, Izuku started to run for the door but halted once he saw something that he was pretty sure Momo would approve of. 

He quickly snatched up the M249 LMG by the carry handle, quickly slinging it over his shoulder so he could still hold his rifle in both hands. 

Judging by signs on the walls he’d passed, he was on sub-level one which seemed to support his theory that the gunfire was coming from below him. 

He managed to find a stairwell without running into any more mercs thankfully and quickly headed down the stairs, keeping his rifle at the ready at all times. 

He was just about to open the door to sub-level two when a squad of mercs ran past the door, Izuku just seeing them through the small rectangle of glass set into the door. 

Izuku paused for a minute before quietly opening the door behind them. He glanced in both directions, the way they had come from was clear and they were only about twenty metres or so ahead of him now. 

Assuming they were moving to join the ones pinning down whichever one of the girls it was, Izuku levelled his rifle down the corridor at the four men. 

The first two didn’t even have time to react as the bullets ripped into their backs, their bodies dropping to the ground instantly. 

The third managed to turn around just in time to take a burst of bullets to the chest, his armour not doing much to protect him. 

The fourth meanwhile managed to get a shot off at Izuku which grazed his left arm. 

Izuku grunted in pain and ducked back into the stairwell. He quickly looked down at his arm to find that luckily, it was only a flesh wound, the bullet just catching the side of his upper arm. 

Izuku crouched down close to the ground before he popped back out the doorway. 

The mercenary’s rifle had been pointed at roughly Izuku’s previous head height but he was much lower now and couldn’t lower his rifle in time before Izuku pulled the trigger and a single 5.56 round entered his throat, the merc dropping his own rifle instantly as he collapsed, clutching his throat. 

Izuku darted down the corridor, keeping his low profile. He paused briefly as he passed the one still living mercenary, currently choking to death on his own blood. 

Izuku decided to help him on his way, putting a bullet in his head before changing mags. 

“Nine...” he muttered to himself. “How many of these bastards are there here?” 

He had only just continued on his way down the corridor when his radio burst into life again. 

“Delta Actual, this is Delta Eight, we just heard gunshots coming from behind us, we think one of the other prisoners is on this floor too” came a different voice to earlier. 

“Roger that, be prepared for an ambush from the rear as you push on the prisoner” the leader advised. 

“Roger sir... but we can’t move any closer, anytime any of us leave cover they die... our squad leader was just killed a minute ago” the voice replied. 

“For fucks sake, these are three sixteen-year-olds, one of them is fucking quirkless, you’re all trained operators, how the fuck can you not do your jobs?” 

“We’re trying our best sir but-ARGH!” the voice suddenly screamed before the radio went dead. 

Barely a split second before that cry, Izuku heard a gunshot ring out from not that far away. 

Izuku careful snuck forward, keeping low to the ground. He came to a turn off point, the corridor continued ahead of him and turned off to the left. He peered around the corner to look into what looked like a warehouse of some kind and saw somewhere between six and nine guards taking cover behind various crates and pillars about twenty metres away. 

He also saw at least seven corpses lying on the floor and one guard clutching a bleeding wound in his stomach. 

As he watched, two of the mercs stood up from their cover to return fire. Almost as soon as they popped up, the closest one to Izuku’s head snapped back with a spray of blood with the crack of a rifle. 

The other one let out a short burst before ducking back behind a metal munitions crate as bullets impacted the surrounding cover. 

With the mercs sufficiently distracted, Izuku pulled out one of the smoke grenades and pulled the pin, sliding it along the ground towards them, pulling the thermal goggles down over his eyes as he did so. 

The mercenaries let out assorted cries of surprise at the sudden cloud of smoke that engulfed them and two of them began firing blindly in the direction of the smoke. 

The muzzle flashes apparently lit them up enough for either Momo or Mei to get a shot at one of them, the merc collapsing as his head snapped to the side. 

The other soldier who fired in Izuku’s direction, not eager to suffer the same fate as his comrade, ducked back behind cover. 

Unfortunately for them however, Izuku had a clear line of sight on most of them as well as thermal goggles. 

‘It’s almost like cheating’ he thought as he lined up his rifle at the first target. 

With a series of brief bursts of fire, five of the mercenaries fell to the ground, no longer moving. He briefly considered putting down the wounded one but refrained for now. 

“DELTA ACTUAL, WE’VE BEEN AMBUSHED, MOST OF THE SQUAD IS DEAD... THEY’RE ON BOTH FLANKS NOW!” came a panicked shout from the radio. 

“FUCKING HELL! FINE, I’LL DO IT MYSELF!” came the furious response from whoever was in charge of these mercs. 

Izuku, while reloading his rifle, called out to the mercs in English. 

“I’m gonna give you one chance to surrender... if you don’t... the next grenade won’t be smoke” he warned. 

“GET FUCKED!” came a defiant shout, punctuated by a panicked spray of assault rifle fire. 

‘Well that’s just rude’ Izuku thought as he put a bullet between his eyes. 

“Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you” Izuku called out, making sure the pin being removed from the grenade was audible down the corridor. 

“WHOA WHOA WHOA WAIT, WE SURRENDER!” came a much more reasonable sounding voice. 

Izuku watched through the thermal goggles as the two-remaining standing mercs tossed their rifles to the ground and stood up, putting their hands on their heads. 

Izuku slowly started moving towards them, the rifle staying aimed at them at all times. “No funny business... I've got thermal goggles, an M4 and a lot of built-up rage” he warned. 

As the smoke began to fade, he pushed the goggles back over his forehead, as they weren’t really necessary anymore. As the mercs got their first look at the one who had just killed most of them, they saw he was holding his rifle in one hand with a grenade in the other, held next to his head. 

“Remember, the pin’s already gone, one wrong move and they’ll be having to scoop you into a Tupperware container” he warned them. 

“Hey man, this is just a job, I’m not fucking dying for this” one of them replied, clearly scared out of his mind. 

“Good, guess some of you have more than two brain cells to rub together after all” Izuku replied, tossing the grenade far into the warehouse away from any crates that may contain anything explosive where it detonated with a loud bang. 

“Izuku? Is that you?” a Japanese voice called out from further in the warehouse. 

“Momo? Yeah it’s me, I'm here and I've got three captives, you can come out” he shouted back, switching to Japanese. 

After a few seconds, the familiar spiky black ponytail of one of his two best friends appeared from behind a large stack of crates, wearing one of the merc’s bulletproof vests and still pointing a rifle in the direction of the mercenaries. 

“You injured?” Izuku asked. 

“A few flesh wounds, nothing serious” Momo replied. 

Izuku nodded approvingly, “Good, let’s deal with these guys” 

The two teenagers approached the mercs and commanded them to get on their knees. They did so, not exactly wanting to resist against the two that just killed about a dozen men between them. 

Momo quickly produced two pairs of handcuffs and secured their hands behind their backs while Izuku checked on the wounded man. 

Izuku knelt in front of him, his rifle resting against his knee. “How bad is it?” he asked in English as he examined the wound. 

“Argh it’s... pretty bad” the merc spat back. 

Izuku nodded, “Momo, morphine and bandages please” he requested, turning to the raven-haired girl for a brief moment before looking back to the merc. “Luckily for you it’s passed right through so count your lucky stars” 

Momo handed him a military issue morphine syrette and a roll of sterile bandages. 

Izuku carefully injected the morphine into the man’s arm who let out a sigh of relief as the pain started to slowly fade. He then cut the bulletproof vest away from his chest to wrap the bandages around his torso, binding them tightly. 

“Who... who the hell are you?” he gasped. 

Izuku chuckled, “The wrong people to mess with” he replied. 

“Well... got that fucking right” the wounded man muttered in response. 

Izuku nodded as he slung the man’s arm over his shoulder, lifting him onto his feet and helping him over to the closest wall to sit against. 

Momo brought the other two prisoners over with him and ordered them onto their knees. 

With the three mercs secure and the wounded one now also restrained, Izuku held a radio taken from one of the corpses up to one of the ones who had surrendered. 

“Tell your boss you killed the prisoner you had pinned down and managed to drive off the other one and ask where the other one is” he instructed, tone of voice making it very clear that refusal would not be in his best interest. 

The man nervously nodded, sweat dripping down his face as he leant forward to the radio. “Erm... Delta Actual? This is Echo Two, we neutralised the prisoner trapped in the sub-level two warehouse and drove off the quirkless one, where is the other prisoner?” 

There were a few moments of silence before a new voice spoke. “Echo Two? The other prisoner is on the ground floor, she’s managed to get a hold of a sniper rifle and is in a makeshift nest... the captain is on his way to deal with her but he needs reinforcements, proceed to the ground floor immediately” 

Izuku nodded and tossed the radio away. “Good man, see, that wasn’t that hard was it?” he asked with a grin. 

“I have no fucking idea how you’ve lived this long... but you’re not gonna beat the captain... he’s gonna rip you in half” the mercenary warned him. 

“Duly noted” Momo responded, smacking him in the face with the butt of her rifle. 

Slightly caught off guard but not wanting to be left out, Izuku did the same to the other. 

He looked down at the wounded one and smiled, “Don’t worry, you get to stay awake, I’d feel bad hitting a man who’s already wounded” 

“...thanks?” the wounded merc replied, not exactly sure how to respond in a way that lets him stay conscious. 

Izuku nodded, still smiling. “You’re welcome, stay here would you?” he asked politely as he and Momo started walking away. 

As the two approached the stairwell again, Momo admired his handiwork as they stepped over the four corpses in the corridor. “Nicely done Zuku, what’s your count at?” she asked. 

“Dead? Fifteen now” Izuku replied, “I’ve been wondering where the hell we are exactly that there could be so many mercenaries in Tokyo... I mean, we weren’t driving long enough to get to another city... so where are we?” 

Momo shrugged, checking her rifle as she walked. “I was wondering that myself, considering the apparent scale of their operations here I wouldn’t be surprised if this was their headquarters here in Japan” 

Izuku nodded in agreement. “It’d make sense... by the way, what’s that you’ve got there?” he asked, gesturing to her rifle. 

“This? Oh, FN FAL, even more outdated than yours but still a solid gun” she replied, “In fact, I might see if I can keep it, it’s got a satisfying kick to it” 

“Well... I think I’ve got something you might like even more” he replied, pulling the LMG from his back. 

Momo’s eyes lit up when she saw it, “Oh Izuku... you know just what a girl wants” 

Izuku chuckled as Momo eagerly took it. “I try my best” 

“Oh I know you do and you’ve delivered again” Momo replied as she examined the M249, lifting up the cover to examine the ammo belt. “Hmm, fairly standard, one tracer, four ball cartridges” she commented. “It’ll more than do the job though” she added, pulling the cocking handle. 

Izuku chuckled at the sight, “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of seeing you carry something like that” 

“I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of carrying one” she replied cheerfully. 

Izuku knew full well she meant that in both terms of entertainment as well as literally. He was pretty sure she could carry one of those for days and not even worry about it. 

In their training, they’d each determined a speciality each, a certain kind of gunplay they excelled at. 

Izuku was a natural with handguns although displayed a significant amount of skill with rifles too. 

Momo meanwhile was a master of all things heavy, Machineguns, Launchers, anything that left the person it was pointed at resembling raspberry coulis more than a person, she was an expert in firing it. 

And then there was Mei. Mei excelled in all things that exploded as well as being the most accurate out of the trio. 

They had already begun creating prototypes of their equipment using some of the tech that they were going to be presenting over the next few days. 

Izuku’s gear was a medium armour with a pair of pistols and what would be considered the equivalent of a carbine. 

Momo was creating a suit of heavy armour and had made a repeater with an integrated grenade launcher. 

Mei’s equipment meanwhile was lighter than the other two and she had a sniper rifle and a pistol. 

Despite only being prototypes, they all really wished they had their weapons right now. 

Bulletproof vests and helmets don’t do a whole lot against blaster bolts after all. 

Izuku and Momo made their way up to the ground floor, managing to take out a merc who was standing guard at the door to the ground floor in the stairwell. 

Not so carefully moving the body out the way, they opened the door and crept out into a large foyer. 

They imagined that this building was once a commercial or office complex as this appeared to have once been an opulent building but was now in disrepair and covered in discarded trash. 

They saw a small set of stairs leading to a set of dusty glass double doors at the end of the room, the centre of the room was a large open space with pillars running along both sides. 

At the opposite end of the room to the stairs, just behind a large receptionist’s desk was a tall decorative planter that stood at about fifteen metres high at its tallest point. 

The door the two teens had just emerged from was just behind one of these pillars which they immediately took cover behind. 

They could immediately tell where Mei was as there were about a dozen corpses lying strewn across the main section of the foyer. They could see several mercenaries hiding behind pillars on the opposite side of the room, occasionally popping out of cover to fire up towards the top of the planter. 

This action appeared to result in death most of the time judging by the corpses lying behind many of these pillars. 

With the mercenaries and Mei distracting each other, Izuku and Momo had time to take stock of the situation. 

They were about to start making a plan when the radio crackled to life. “Attention all units in the foyer, the captain is entering through the main doors with Alpha Team, give them cover” 

Izuku grinned and looked at Momo, “Double grenade special?” he asked, holding two smoke grenades and a pair of thermal goggles out to her. 

Momo nodded and took them, slinging her machinegun over her shoulder for the minute and pulling both pins after affixing the goggles. “Ready, move now” she instructed. 

Izuku nodded, darting further down the room, keeping behind the pillars to get closer to the double doors. As he went he picked up an old discarded newspaper and wrapped it around one of the frag grenades, pulling the pin as he did. 

With the mercenaries still distracted by Mei, he was able to push up quickly and remain unnoticed. He ducked behind the second pillar from the door and waited for his targets. 

Less than fifteen seconds later, a large man in heavy armour burst through the door along with half a dozen, more elite looking mercenaries. 

The men hiding behind the pillars on the opposite end of the room all opened fire towards Mei at once, keeping her head down so she couldn’t shoot any of them immediately. 

Izuku held a hand into the air so Momo could see it and clenched his fist. 

Momo then appeared from around the pillar and threw both smoke grenades towards the new group, blinding them. They didn’t reach them but that was on purpose, it was instead just meant to reveal her presence but obscure it. 

As hoped, they took the bait, the group all stopping in their tracks and opening fire at Momo’s position who quickly ducked back behind the pillar before getting shot. 

Izuku pulled the lever off the wrapped up frag grenade in his hand and slid it across the ground towards the group. The paper-wrapped grenade slid towards them nearly silently, any noise it did make being drowned out by the gunfire. 

None of them noticed until it went off. The explosion killed three of them instantly, wounding another one. The captain in the heavy armour and the two who were furthest away were left unharmed but now turned toward’s Izuku’s position. 

Momo took that opportunity to drop to a knee and unleash a hail of 5.56 at them. Izuku could see the tracer fire bursting through the smoke and ripping through the two less armoured mercenaries although they unfortunately only deflected off the captain’s thick armour. 

Knowing he was in a severely disadvantaged position right now, the captain darted for cover as quickly as he could, throwing his hand forward and shooting a large shard of what looked like mercury at Izuku. 

The shining metal spear embedded into the pillar just next to him, narrowly avoiding stabbing him in the arm. Izuku responded with a burst of fire but was unable to penetrate the armour. 

He did manage to take out one of the lesser mercs who was hiding behind the same pillar the captain ran to however. 

“OH, ABOUT FREAKING TIME!” Mei shouted out, “I WAS WORRIED YOU’D MISS ALL THE FUN!” 

“NOT IN A MILLION YEARS MEI!” Momo called back, suppressing a group of mercs with her machinegun. 

There came two loud cracks and two more mercenaries fell to the floor, leaving just the captain and three very nervous looking mercenaries. 

“SO! TIME FOR YOU TO NEGOTIATE SURRENDER YET?” Izuku shouted in English. 

The three less armoured men looked like they were about to do so but the captain gave them a vicious look through his armoured helmet and they stayed where they were. 

“NO WAY... I’LL ADMIT, YOU THREE ARE A HELL OF A LOT MORE SKILLED THAN HE MENTIONED... BUT A JOB’S A JOB” the captain yelled back. 

“COME ON CAPTAIN, WHOEVER WAS PAYING YOU, IT CAN’T POSSIBLY BE ENOUGH TO MAKE UP FOR ALL THE MEN YOU’VE LOST!” Izuku shouted. “I KILLED TWENTY BY MYSELF ALREADY!” 

“ELEVEN HERE!” Momo added. 

“LUCKY NUMBER THIRTEEN FOR ME!” Mei announced. 

The captain chuckled loudly, “YOU’D BE SURPRISED, SOMEONE REALLY, REALLY HATES YOU THREE AND WAS WILLING TO PAY A LOT TO GET INFO OUT OF YOU” 

YOU KNOW WHAT?... THAT’S NOT SURPRISING AT ALL” Izuku replied, throwing a grenade at him, having used this brief period of calm to line up a throw. 

The captain was about to respond when he saw the grenade land at his feet half a second before it detonated. 

Despite his armour, the sheer force of the explosion ripped his lower leg off below the left knee and he collapsed to the ground, screaming in agony. 

Izuku and Momo both rushed out of cover, aiming their weapons at the cluster of remaining mercs. “Anyone else want to try anything?” Izuku threatened. 

Each man immediately responded by throwing their weapons away and putting their hands on their heads. 

As Mei came down from her perch to join them, Momo went about producing more cuffs to restrain the three mercenaries while Izuku walked over to the captain who was still screaming in pain. 

Izuku pulled the helmet from his head to see an older man with closely shaven greying hair with a set of scars across the face which spoke to his many years of combat experience. 

This man probably had at least fifteen or so years of experience... and he was beaten by three sixteen-year-olds. 

Knowing they wouldn’t get much useful out of him for now, Izuku slammed the butt of his rifle onto his nose, definitely breaking it and knocking him out. 

With the foyer now secured, the three teens met up at the receptionist’s desk. 

“Well... that was an unexpected detour” Izuku chuckled after a few moments of silence. 

The three all burst out laughing, relief that they made it through mixing with the realisation that they somehow just survived that creating an overwhelming amount of emotions. 

They started to calm down after a few minutes, each wiping tears from their eyes. 

“Any major injuries?” Izuku asked. 

Mei and Momo both shook their heads. 

“No, I’ve got a flesh wound on my shoulder and my leg as well as a few cuts but nothng worse than that” Momo replied. 

Mei’s hand went to a cut on her cheek and winced, “I’ve just got this from a bullet that ricocheted off my rifle and I got slashed on the leg while getting out my cell” 

Izuku nodded, “No major injuries then, that’s good, I've just got the wound on my arm and some scratches” 

“Well... think it’s about time to call in backup?” Mei asked. 

Momo nodded, creating a small blinking gadget out of the palm of her hand. “What about the others? There’s got to be more in a command centre somewhere” she asked. 

Izuku shrugged, “If they flee another way, not much we can do about that, if they’re still here when the police get here then we can let them take over” 

The two girls both nodded, “Seems fair... we’ve already done a lot” Mei replied. 

They all looked at each other in silence for a few moments before they all got closer together and wrapped their arms around each other, clinging to the others tightly, each thankful beyond words that they were all safe. 

When Aizawa heard that Sebas had received the tracking signal, he had managed to get together two full teams of SWAT officers as well as a few colleagues. 

He’d managed to recruit Snipe, Ectoplasm and Cementoss to the mission after explaining one of the teenagers in danger was his son. 

When they pulled up outside the disused skyscraper in one of the less populated parts of the city, he expected to be running into either a fight or a well-prepared enemy stronghold. 

He did not expect to see the results of what could only be called a massacre in the foyer as soon as he walked in. Everyone present apart from Sebas, who had insisted on coming with them, pulling a revolver from his jacket and refusing to take no for an answer, was shocked at the sheer number of corpses lying on the ground, as well as the amount of blood pooled on the dirty tiled floor. 

Aizawa’s eyes went up from the group of mangled bodies just near the door to see at least a dozen more in the room. Then as his eyes reached the reception desk, he saw the three teenagers casually sat there, wearing black bulletproof vests, weapons on their laps and bandages on several injuries they’d apparently sustained. 

They sat over a group of restrained men, Five seemingly unharmed and in handcuffs, two wounded but stable in handcuffs and one unconscious man missing part of his leg with a tourniquet tied around it. 

Upon seeing the three teenagers, seemingly armed for a fight, several of the officers took up firing positions. “THROW DOWN YOUR WEAPONS AND PUT YOUR HANDS UP!” one of them shouted. 

Aizawa rushed forward and stood between them, “STOP! THEY’RE WHO WE’RE HERE TO HELP, THEY’RE THE PRISONERS!” he snapped at them. 

The armed officers exchanged confused glances for a moment before lowering their weapons. 

Aizawa breathed a sigh of relief and turned around to face the three teens again who were all smiling and waving at him. 

“Eraserhead! Long-time no see!” Izuku called out cheerfully. 

This was not exactly how Aizawa saw meeting his son again to go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, the media are certainly going to have a lot to talk about after this aren't they?
> 
> As always, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.


	7. Reactions and Training

As the SWAT officers swept both the building and the underground levels, they were constantly shocked at both the number of corpses and that fact that these mercenaries somehow managed to set up an entire base of operations in the middle of Tokyo. 

One squad located the command centre and arrested a number of logistics officers who had been running the operation while the rest of them started removing the already captured mercenaries. 

The three teenagers, who somehow managed to dismantle an entire paramilitary operation themselves, were being treated in an ambulance called just outside the building. 

Sebas and Aizawa didn’t let them out of their sight for a second with Snipe, Ectoplasm and Cementoss standing guard nearby. 

“So... explain to me again why you didn’t immediately make the tracking chip so we could come and find you?” Aizawa demanded again. 

“Because... if you’d tried to storm in here yourselves there probably would have been quite a lot of casualties on your side” Momo offered uncertainly. 

Aizawa sighed, “Maybe... but these are police officers, they’re trained for... well, maybe not quite this but it’s their job regardless” he responded. 

“Yeah... but we are trained for this, we have been training for this for eight years” Izuku replied. “Again, not for this exact situation but for things like it” 

Aizawa sighed again, louder this time. “I have no idea what’s going to be done with you three... I mean... you fought back against your captors, technically you didn’t do anything wrong there... only Yaoyorozu used her quirk and never to directly attack someone... I suppose thinking about it... you haven’t really done anything wrong” 

Mei nodded, “So we can go? We still need to head to the academy and make sure the opening went alright” 

Aizawa spluttered, “The academy? You were all just kidnapped and killed... I don’t even know how many mercenaries” 

“Forty-four dead between us, eight captured by us including the captain and I think the police arrested six logistics officers... so fifty-eight either dead or captured” Izuku summarised. 

Aizawa just stared at them, not even bothering to gasp or splutter this time. “How are you so calm about this?” he demanded. 

“Well... we’ve trained for this for half our lives... these were essentially legalised hired killers and... honestly we’re all either in shock still or it’s the trauma again” Mei answered, the other two nodding along. 

Aizawa’s head sank into his hand, his forehead held up with his fingers. “Just... give the officer in charge your statements and... just go I guess” he relented, turning around and shaking his head. 

Aizawa took several steps away from the ambulance where their minor wounds were being treated and Sebas followed him, smirking slightly. 

“They are not what you expected” he summarised. 

“No Sebas, they aren’t” Aizawa replied, “They’re sixteen freaking years old... they shouldn’t be in this situation in the first place, let alone be so calm after killing over forty people... even I’ve only ever killed four villains before and I’ve been an underground hero for nearly eighteen years” 

“Well... despite their age, they have been trained for such things for many years by soldiers, martial artists and I have a slight suspicion I might have somehow hired an assassin to teach them blade work” Sebas replied, “If you really want to understand why they can do the things they do... come to the Yaoyorozu estate tomorrow, watch their daily training... you’ll understand then” 

Aizawa sighed reluctantly, “Alright... but didn’t they have some other press thing tomorrow?” 

Sebas nodded, “They do, that’s no reason to miss training” he replied. 

Aizawa smirked, he knew he liked these kids for a reason. 

Fuyumi Todoroki had been nervously pacing around her office for the past few hours. She had been expecting the founders to come to the Academy about an hour after she got off the phone with Miss Yaoyorozu. 

About ten minutes after that, she got a call from their head butler telling her that they had been kidnapped by unknown soldiers. 

She nearly had a nervous breakdown right there and then. When they had approached her with the idea for the Prospect Academy, she was on board instantly, even before they offered her the position of headmistress. 

They had explained their reasons, one of those being that she was the only daughter of the Number Two hero and that would grant the Academy legitimacy but they also told her it was because from what they had heard of her, she was incredibly kind and compassionate and would be the right person to run the institution. 

Well after that, how could she say no? 

She truly believed in their motivations and the purpose of the academy... but without them, she didn’t know how long the academy would last, especially with the vultures/shareholders from Yaoyorozu Industries that she had been warned about. Yaoyorozu had told her that if something happened to them, they would almost certainly try and shut the academy down and seize the funding. 

She was currently sat at her desk with her head in her hands, all these worst-case scenarios running through her head when the phone rang. She immediately snatched it up and put it to her ear. 

“Sebas? Is there any news?” she demanded nervously. 

“Don’t worry Fuyumi, it’s me, we’re safe” Yaoyorozu reassured her. 

Fuyumi let out a loud relieved sigh, “Miss Yaoyorozu? What happened? Sebas told me you had been kidnapped” 

“We were kidnapped, we escaped and fought out way out” Yaoyorozu informed her. 

Fuyumi just stared ahead blankly. “...You what?” she asked deadpan after a few seconds. 

“You know we’ve been training to become heroes, the training ended up coming in handy earlier than expected” Yaoyorozu replied. 

“Well I mean yes but... Sebas said you were captured by soldiers... who were they?” Fuyumi asked. 

“A Private Military Company called Red Scar, basically legal mercenaries... they were good... but clearly not good enough” she answered. “Don’t worry Fuyumi, we’re fine and they’ve been dealt with” 

“Oh good... well, will you be visiting us some other time then?” Fuyumi asked. 

“Actually, that’s what I was calling about, we’re about five minutes away” Yaoyorozu replied. 

“Good evening Japan, this evening, an update to today’s most notable story” she began. “Earlier today, young business and tech moguls; Momo Yaoyorozu, Izuku Midoriya and Mei Hatsume were kidnapped by masked figures after leaving an interview where they discussed their new charity” she recalled. 

“But we have now received word from police and the Yaoyorozu estate that they have been safely recovered from their captors and in fact, managed to escape from their captors themselves, police only arriving on the scene to find the three young geniuses in control of the building, most of their captors killed or captured” she explained, shock clear in her voice despite her practiced calm tone. “And then, to add to the shock, instead of seeking medical attention for wounds they had sustained or returning home, they went to their new institution, the Prospect Academy to inspect it and meet the new residents as they had intended to before their capture” 

“The police have informed us that they were kidnapped by an American Private Military Company called Red Scar who were operating here illegally although there has been no word yet on who had contracted them to kidnap the three teenagers” she continued. 

Imada Juro furiously threw his glass of scotch onto the ground where it smashed violently. He had just come back from a meeting with the rest of the shareholders, an ‘emergency meeting’ after they had been kidnapped. 

How could those useless Americans not manage to hold three fucking teenagers? One of them was quirkless for fuck’s sake. 

He and the other shareholders paid a hell of a lot of money to Red Scar to capture them and interrogate them for all their knowledge. They may have hated those kids but none of them could deny they were geniuses. 

If they could have gotten their plans, designs and formulas, they could have taken over the company again and become wealthy beyond their wildest dreams... more than they already were anyway. 

According to the captain, they had at least fifty men in that building... how the hell did they manage to kill or capture them all? 

He huffed angrily, it was an incredible annoyance, but it wasn't the end of the world. They were still incredibly rich and they were careful to cover their tracks. They might suspect them... but they’d have no proof. 

All they had to do was lay low and wait for another opportunity. 

Elsewhere in the city, another pair of interested observers was watching the same news report. 

“Huh... I thought our problem had been solved without us needing to lift a finger... this may complicate things” Chitoze Kizuki commented. 

A man sat behind a large desk nearby nodded in agreement, “Indeed, Momo Yaoyorozu and her two colleagues have been a constant thorn in our sides in two ways” Rikiya Yotsubashi agreed. “Since the release of Midoriya’s Dragonfly drones and the company’s reformation under Yaoyorozu, their company has been slowly chipping away at our control over the market that we took during their temporary shift towards military production” he explained. “And now... with their interview with you earlier and this... Academy of theirs... they are showing themselves to have almost the exact opposite goals to us” 

Kizuki nodded, “Yes... but we already knew they were unlikely to be supportive of the Meta Liberation Army given Midoriya’s quirklessness... but even so, going so far for those with weak meta abilities or none at all? A waste of time” 

“Meta abilities are everything, those that are weak do not deserve the same as the strong... this Academy is an attempt to shake up the whole natural order... those who would go there, those with weak or ‘villainous’ abilities... they go there to find hope, only to find there isn’t any, not in this world” Yotsubashi proselytised. 

“But now... after somehow escaping from what sounded like a whole platoon of Red Scars... they’re going to be in the spotlight a lot in the future, giving them more of an opportunity to spread their message” Kizuku replied, “Plus, if they were able to do that, they’re clearly dangerous themselves” 

Yotsubashi nodded, “They are... we will have to take action against them someday... but not today, not while the eyes of the country are upon them” 

“But sir... the more the spread their message, the harder it will be for us to spread our own, to recruit new soldiers” Kizuku protested. 

“Perhaps... but you shouldn’t worry yourself Curious... their time will come, I’ve been reassured that we are almost ready, less than a year away from our moment” Yotsubashi informed her. “By this time next year, we will be living in a liberated society” 

Kizuki grinned widely, “Truly? Not even a year away? How exciting” 

Yotsubashi nodded, turning back to the television, currently displaying a picture of the three young geniuses. “They have chosen their side, by this time next year, they will not be alive to regret it” 

It was late at night by the time Aizawa got back to UA, tossing his capture weapon to the side as he stepped into his apartment in the teacher’s dorms. He turned the light on, intending to go and make himself what must have been his twentieth cup of coffee that day when he saw a small figure sat at his dining table. 

“Good night Aizawa, I’ve heard you had a busy day” Nezu began cheerfully. 

Aizawa flinched with a loud groan, “Oh... Principal Nezu... do you do that on purpose?” he asked. 

Nezu just nodded, “Of course I do, it amuses me... but honestly, what truly amuses me was the fact that somehow, it had escaped my attention that you were personally acquainted with Misses Yaoyorozu, Hatsume and Mr Midoriya” 

Aizawa grimaced slightly, he already knew he wasn’t going to enjoy this conversation. “I wouldn’t say I was personally acquainted... I met them once at I-island about eight years ago and I happened to be in the area when they were captured” he lied. 

Nezu just continued to smile. “Oh come now Aizawa, you know better than to lie to me” he gently scolded him. “I know full well you have subtly attended every single one of their public events, you regularly speak with their head butler every couple of weeks and... it took a lot more digging than I expected... but I managed to dig up Izuku Midoriya’s birth certificate” 

Aizawa just looked at the white-furred rodent, at this point, not even surprised at this. 

“The birth certificate doesn’t list a father, the late Miss Midoriya claimed she didn’t know who the father was... but, she did have a test taken on the infant Izuku... do you want to guess what the results said?” Nezu continued, face slowly splitting into a self-satisfied smirk. 

Aizawa rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders, “Alright... Izuku’s my son... what do you want me to say?” he demanded. “And how the hell did you find all that out anyway?” 

Nezu just tapped the side of his muzzle, “I have my ways Aizawa... and as for what I want you to say... nothing, but I would like to make one small request...” 

Aizawa could feel his heartbeat quicken in fear. “What... what’s that?” 

“I would like to meet them” 

“I understand that you wanted a chance to test your skills against real opponents for once but would it have killed you to call for help after you realised you were in the middle of what was essentially a military compound?” Sebas scolded the three teens. 

Izuku and the girls were sat on a sofa in one of the lounges at the Yaoyorozu estate. 

“Well... even if we had, they might not have gotten there in time, we’d been waiting at least seven or eight minutes after making the tracking chip, the whole battle probably only took about ten minutes” Momo responded. 

“Maybe, but even if you have been trained by some of the most skilled instructors on the planet, keep in mind you are not heroes yet and are still only sixteen years old” Sebas replied sternly. 

Izuku nodded, “We’re sorry Sebas, it was a chaotic situation and we didn’t have much time to plan anything, this was the first time we’d all been in mortal danger after all” 

Sebas sighed wearily, “I know... but I'm getting old, my heart won’t last if you keep doing things like this” 

“What are you talking about Sebas? You’ll outlive all three of us” Mei replied cheerfully. 

Sebas pointed a gloved finger in her face, “Yes I will if you three keep acting so recklessly” he snapped before sighing again. “You should get to bed... you still have a busy week ahead and you can’t slack on training tomorrow” 

They all nodded, standing up and saying goodnight to Sebas as they made their way to get ready for sleep. 

None of them ever agreed on doing so at any point that day or in the past but all three of them met up again outside Momo’s room, all ready to go to bed. 

With no words needed, Izuku and Mei just followed her inside and they all climbed under the covers of Momo’s bed, cuddling up close to each other like they used to do when they were younger. 

Mei wrapped her arms around Momo’s stomach from behind and gently pressed her forehead against her upper back while Momo laid her head on one of Izuku’s arms while his other gently wrapped around her side, pulling her, and by extension Mei, closer to him. 

Within a few minutes, they each fell asleep, gently clinging to each other in their sleep, comforted by each other’s presence. 

They were all they had, and they’d never let each other go. 

Aizawa nervously trudged his way up the long gravel driveway leading to the Yaoyorozu estate. He... hadn’t anticipated the estate being quite so large or he’d have brought a car. 

He had called Sebas late last night and expressed Nezu’s wish to meet his wards. 

Sebas invited him to come to the estate and watch their morning training session as he had done the day before, telling him that he could speak to them about it. 

Aizawa wasn’t entirely sure he actually wanted to know what their training consisted of to turn them into the terrifying killing machines they had become but he accepted that if he ever wanted to be a real part of Izuku’s life... he’d have to get used to it at some point. 

Sebas was waiting for him at the main entrance. He politely invited him in and offered tea, almost as an apparent reflex action. 

With Aizawa politely refusing a cup of tea for now, Sebas led him through the mansion. 

Aizawa peered around at the opulent interior as he followed the aging butler. Not for the first time, he was glad he let Izuku stay under the guardianship of Sebas and the Estate as a whole. There was nothing he could provide which would come even close to what he got here. 

As Sebas led him into what he at first assumed to be a wine cellar or something, Aizawa only grew more confused. Especially when the old wood-panelled and stone brick walls suddenly turned to concrete and they came upon a huge gleaming metal door. 

Sebas removed one of his gloves and laid his palm on the door, there was a brief whirring noise and then a series of loud clunks and bangs before the door began to split open. 

“Now then... I'm confident you already understand this, but you are not to speak about what you see in here to anyone, am I clear?” Sebas asked, holding out a hand to stop Aizawa walking any further. 

Aizawa frowned, “Well... Principal Nezu is definitely going to want to know what it’s here” he responded reluctantly. 

Sebas sighed, “Well... once they’re done with their training, you may ask the young masters whether they will permit you to tell him about some of the things in here” he relented, “But aside from that, you will not tell a soul?” 

Aizawa nodded, “Of course” he promised. 

Sebas nodded, “Very well” he said before turning to the door and walking through. 

“ **Identification** ” came a robotic voice out of nowhere. 

“Sebas Tian, here with a guest, Shota Aizawa” Sebas responded clearly. 

“ **No guests have been cleared** ” the voice responded. 

“Inform the masters, they will clear him” Sebas instructed. 

Sebas patiently waited for a response while Aizawa stood behind him unsure. 

“So... your surname is Tian?” he asked. 

Sebas nodded in confirmation. 

“And you became a butler?” he then asked. 

Sebas turned to him with a smirk on his face. “Yes, my mother had an odd sense of humour” he replied, “And a quirk that allowed her to see the future... I think she knew this would happen so she named me accordingly” 

Aizawa snickered, “Your mother sounds like an interesting lady” 

Sebas nodded, “She was, her quirk was even more interesting though, she could see the future of her family but not herself... the only thing she knew about her own future was how she was going to die” 

Aizawa cocked an eyebrow. “And... how did she die?” he asked hesitantly. 

“Well... all she knew was that she was going to die attempting to change her own fate” Sebas began. “One day, she was one a trip with my father in America and they stopped at a diner for breakfast... after they ordered, she suddenly got a terrible feeling about something” 

Aizawa was intrigued now and was listening intently. “She had ordered a meal with a side of bacon, and fearing what would happen to her, she changed her order to a side of sausages instead” Sebas continued. 

“So... what happened?” Aizawa asked. 

“She ate one sausage and choked to death” Sebas replied, staring at him for a few seconds. 

Aizawa just returned the stare for a few moments. “...you’re fucking with me aren’t you?” 

Sebas’s face broke out into a wide grin and he smacked him on the shoulder, “I’m just fucking with you, yes she could see the future but she didn’t die like that, she died peacefully surrounded by family” 

Aizawa chuckled quietly, “You had me going for a second there” he admitted. 

“I hope so, I’ve had years to practice that story” Sebas replied. 

“How many times have you tried telling it?” Aizawa asked. 

“Apart from you? Only to those three” Sebas answered. 

“And did it work on them?” Aizawa questioned. 

“Oh no they saw right through me immediately” Sebas replied with a grin. 

“ **Guest: Shota Aizawa has been cleared, proceed through decontamination and security** ” the robotic voice instructed. 

Sebas nodded and gestured for Aizawa to follow him. 

The further Aizawa walked into this high-tech complex, the more he dreaded Nezu meeting these three. Decontamination happened to be some kind of full-body medical scanner. 

It diagnosed that he would get arthritis within the next six years if he continued his hero work. 

With that discouraging realisation, Aizawa passed through the scanner only to have to wait for Sebas to allow him through another thick metal door. 

As this door opened, they stepped into a much larger chamber, white tiled floors, painted concrete walls and bright lights on the ceiling. 

Aizawa’s eyes were immediately drawn to the four doors in the room, all with signs over them. 

Sebas pointed to each of them in turn. “Those three are their private workshops and laboratories, Izuku’s is called ‘The Production Line’, that is where he mass-produced the Dragonfly Drones before their takeover of Yaoyorozu Industries, currently he’s working on a new project that he’s been keeping secret from the rest of us” Sebas began. 

“That one is Mei’s, she quite simply called it ‘The Workshop’, we don’t generally go in there unless we have to... explosions are common in there” Sebas informed him. 

“Common explosions? Is she alright?” Aizawa asked nervously. 

Sebas nodded, “Physically yes, I don’t understand it myself but she seems almost completely unbothered by explosions” 

“So physically healthy... mentally?” Aizawa asked. 

Sebas snorted for a second, “None of them are mentally healthy Aizawa, I thought you already knew that” 

Aizawa shrugged as Sebas pointed to one of the remaining doors. “And that door leads to Momo’s section of the Foundry, she calls it ‘The Laboratory’” Sebas continued. 

Aizawa smirked, “Not exactly creative names” 

Sebas shrugged, “True, but they were of the mind that simply adding the word ‘The’ in front of regular things and talking about them in a different intonation makes them sound more important” 

Aizawa shrugged, fair enough, he couldn’t say they were wrong. 

“And that last one is their training grounds called ‘The Gauntlet’... which if I'm being honest, I personally believe is the most impressive room in this complex” Sebas finished, walking towards the door. 

Aizawa followed Sebas into a smaller chamber than the one they had just been in and followed him over to a large window set into a wall. 

Looking through it, Aizawa looked into a large cavern with what he immediately recognised as a training course inside it. 

Sebas examined a screen near the window, “Let’s see... what are they running today?... oh, beach landing today” he commented. 

“Beach landing?” Aizawa questioned. 

Sebas nodded, gesturing to the structure in the cavern. “Observe, it is about to begin” 

Aizawa peered out the window again to see the entire structure begin to shift. It was built of a large number of white panels of some sort, currently forming a building of some sort. 

They began to move and shift, seemingly on their own, reconfiguring themselves into what Aizawa could recognise as a beach leading up to cliffs. The flat panels warped and morphed to replicate uneven terrain, hills and even trenches. On top of the simulated cliffs, several panels formed into what looked like bunkers or pillboxes. 

After a few more seconds, a bright light appeared from the top of the cavern and several objects appeared on the beach. Shimmering, partly see-through anti-tank obstacles as well about three dozen shining human forms. 

“Sebas... what are they?” Aizawa gasped. 

“Hard light holograms, just solid enough to react to certain signals and actions but not enough to do harm to someone” Sebas replied, “These are one of the things that they will be revealing to the public this week” 

Aizawa just stared at this scene nervously. Hard light holograms? Those were from the realm of science fiction, not reality. 

Aizawa felt a violent shiver run down his body. He had never directly disobeyed one of Nezu’s orders before... but if there was ever a time to do it, it would be now. 

Nezu meeting the minds that could come up with and create something like this... Aizawa couldn’t think of anything that scared him more. 

“Oh, and there they are” Sebas commented. 

Aizawa’s eyes turned towards the ‘waves’ of the ‘beach’ to see three figures running forward towards the holograms. 

“Let us make this a bit easier to see” Sebas muttered, pressing a few buttons next to a screen. Immediately, several panels which had previously hidden the interiors of the bunkers and some of the holograms turned see-through, allowing Aizawa to see the odd weapons they were all carrying. 

Aizawa looked back to the three figures currently sprinting onto the beach. They were each clad in armour of varying weights. 

The one he assumed to be Mei wore the lightest, a chest plate, light pauldrons, gauntlets, boots and plates on her legs. She also carried some odd rifle and had a pistol holstered at her side. 

Izuku wore similar armour although it looked slightly thicker and covered more of his body. Aizawa likened it to Ingenium’s armour, at least in terms of body coverage. He had two pistols on his thighs and a smaller rifle, probably some kind of carbine on his back. 

That left Momo. She wore what looked like the heaviest suit of armour by far. It was much thicker than any of the other two and it didn’t leave a single part of her body exposed. She carried a large rifle that resembled a machinegun to Aizawa. 

Despite their armour, none of them were seeming to be slowed by it as they stormed onto the beach, each taking cover behind several of these anti-tank obstacles. 

Just before they reached the cover, most of the holograms opened fire. 

Aizawa’s eyes widened as he realised what they were firing. 

“Hang on... are they lasers?” he gasped. 

Sebas shook his head, “Not quite but they work roughly the same way, they kill via heat and force” he explained, “I’m not entirely sure how they work myself, you can ask them later if you wish” 

Aizawa watched as in unison, the three teenagers all threw a trio of grenades towards the holograms. 

The grenade burst into an immediate cloud of thick smoke as well as a blinding flash. At least, Aizawa assumed it was blinding considering the closest holograms all recoiled and covered their eyes. 

With the cover of the smoke, Izuku and the two girls all returned fire. 

Izuku pulled out his two pistols, opening fire at a group of holograms through the smoke. Aizawa saw that he only missed two shots out of seven, destroying all five of the holograms he was aiming at. 

Mei rested her rifle on the obstacle she was ducked behind and fired up at one of the bunkers a distance away where a pair of holograms were manning a machinegun of some kind. She pulled the trigger twice and Aizawa saw the holograms violently burst and then almost disintegrate. 

Momo meanwhile dropped to a knee and aimed her rifle, releasing a hail of red lasers through the smoke cloud. It wasn’t accurate but it didn’t need to be, the sheer amount of projectiles cut down half a dozen holograms in only a few seconds. She then aimed her rifle in an arc and fired a pale blue projectile out of it which flew in an arc. 

Said projectile landed in the middle of a trench between three other holograms and instantly detonated as soon as it made contact with the ground. The resulting explosion blew the three to pieces. The explosion itself didn’t seem to have any fire or shrapnel. 

“Concussion blast” Sebas answered his unspoken question. “Imagine an impact grenade which is just force, no fire or shrapnel” 

“Is that lethal?” Aizawa asked. 

“It depends on what power setting she has it set on, if it’s low powered then no, it would only be strong enough to knock them out and probably send them flying... high power? It would probably blow a person apart” Sebas replied. 

“So... do all of these weapons have different power settings?” Aizawa asked nervously. 

“Not all of them, Mei’s rifle there, that is a prototype of one she’s working on, that is so powerful it disintegrates practically anything it hits... the others though yes, they do have stun settings” Sebas informed him. 

Aizawa continued to watch as the three teens took apart the rest of the holograms in a near surgical manner. 

He really, really didn’t want to... but he had to introduce Nezu to them. 

He just hoped whatever they made together would help save the world and not destroy it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, in terms of weapons, Mei basically has the Mandalorian's rifle and his pistol, Izuku has two of the Mandalorian's pistols and something along the lines of the DC15A, the smaller rifle the clone troopers used. Momo meanwhile has the TL-50 Repeater from Battlefront.
> 
> They all have Beskar armour and helmets, Mei's armour is a near carbon copy of the Mandalorian's armour except shaped for a female, Izuku's is a slightly more armoured version of the same armour and Momo's is the heavy Mandalorian's armour.
> 
> As always, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.


	8. Meeting of the Minds and a Trade

Aizawa had never been quite so nervous while on UA grounds before. It was the week after he had gone to see his son and his best friends to arrange a meeting between them and Nezu. 

While being given a brief tour through their... well, there was no other way to put it, underground superhero base, he observed one of their training sessions which displayed both their considerable skills as well as some of the prototype tech they had been producing. 

Seeing such things as hard light holograms, laser weaponry and even the medical scanner he walked through upon arrival made his absolutely scared shitless at the prospect of Nezu meeting those three. 

After their training was finished the three had greeted him eagerly, thanking him again for coming to help them the day before with the whole kidnapping thing. 

He expressed Nezu’s desire to meet them and they were worryingly interested. 

They responded that they certainly wanted to meet him but their schedule for that week was far too busy as they each had several interviews, announcements and unveilings to attend. 

Therefore, they had agreed on the Monday of the week after. 

In the week that had passed since then, on the same day Aizawa met the three again, Mei unveiled two of her creations. The first was an improved version of the fuel she had created to run her jetpack for the competition all those years ago. 

It was incredibly energy efficient, could be used in conceivably any vehicle that required fuel and produced no harmful emissions during use. The only negative effects it caused was during production but even those were practically completely negligible compared to the process of creating regular petrol. 

While this was a colossal advancement, unfortunately it was an exceptionally expensive process for now and so couldn’t be feasibly made publicly available without a ludicrous amount of funding and support from the government. 

The second creation she made however could be made publicly available. It was essentially a special kind of generator combined with a solar panel. It used a crystal to produce a beam of light which then fed into a special kind of solar panel which produced electricity. As of right now, they were only small but one could run an average household by itself and only required an initial jolt of power to start. After that it kept itself going with the power it produced. She had produced this along with Momo, who had theorised and created the crystal. 

While both things were essentially prototypes of future tech and were both rather costly, they were very promising beginnings. 

Two days later, Izuku unveiled his new line of robots. These he called ‘Protocol Droids’. They were humanoid and were designed for the service industry as well as diplomatic uses. This was because they could speak every language on the planet and had essentially been based on Sebas. 

Therefore, they were all very courteous and filled to the brim with pure etiquette. 

He did also say that they could be used for labour purposes although it was not a fast-moving machine by any means and wasn’t that hardy either. 

Still, given the popularity and widespread use of the Dragonfly drones, they were accepted well and by day’s end, the company had already received over twenty thousand orders. 

Finally, on the Friday of that week, Momo spoke briefly at another interview, speaking about the work that her friends had done and reluctantly, answering a few questions about their kidnapping as that had been the question on everyone’s minds. 

She kept the details vague, only saying that they managed to escape from their cells and fight their way to freedom, defeating their captors. She would have told the truth of the matter but had been advised that it may have been alarming to the people of Japan to find out that three sixteen-year-olds killed nearly fifty trained mercs between them. 

After that, she unveiled some of her own creations. She displayed the hard-light holograms to the public for use as public assistants, essentially interactable information booths. What drew more attention however were several new materials she created. 

These were called Plasteel and Plastoid. 

Plasteel could be used for a wide variety of construction purposes, being like steel although a stronger alloy and it even had uses in the medical field. Momo had tested that a Plasteel sleeve could be placed over a fused bone to make it as strong as it once was. 

Plastoid meanwhile she created for the police. It had multiple uses, it could be used in restraints as it was surprisingly difficult to break despite its light weight although she mainly advertised it as lightweight body armour, both stronger and lighter than Kevlar. 

One thing she kept a secret however was Beskar. This was for two reasons. The first was that as of right now, they had no way to manufacture it naturally, Momo was the only source of this incredible alloy. 

The second was that frankly, the three of them were worried about people using it for the wrong purposes. If it was made into armour for tanks or something similar then it would make such things practically indestructible and that was too dangerous an advantage for any one country to have. 

With the upcoming reveals and unveilings of new products, Yaoyorozu Industries had pre-emptively expanded their production facilities. This turned out to be a wise decision as the orders that came in for many of their new products couldn’t have been handled by their old facilities. 

As reluctant as they were to admit it, even the other shareholders had to admit that their new creations would increase the profitability of the company by a substantial amount. 

That wouldn’t stop them trying to get them out the way however. 

After the weekend to recover from the busy week of announcements and interviews, Izuku, Mei and Momo stood before the gates of UA the Monday after, during classes as to not cause a commotion. 

They all looked up at the tall buildings before them, the glass shining brightly in the morning sunlight. They never thought they’d be here until they became hero students, but now they were here having been specifically summoned by Principal Nezu. 

Needless to say, they were excited. 

Their excitement only grew as a very nervous looking Aizawa came out to meet them, escorting them through the UA barrier. As they entered the building, Izuku glanced over his shoulder with a smirk. The gate hadn’t closed. 

The trio asked Aizawa several questions about UA as they made their way up to Nezu’s office although he was too busy trembling in fear to respond. 

They didn’t really question or blame him too much. They knew of Nezu’s reputation and assumed that Aizawa was terrified of them meeting for the first time. 

Rightly so. 

As they approached Nezu’s office, they noticed several Dragonfly drones flying through the corridors carrying messages or small boxes. Most of them would bleep at Izuku as they passed him, recognising him as their creator. While the commercial Dragonflies could speak Japanese and mostly did, they could still communicate through the bleeps like Spark did. 

They soon came upon the wooden doors leading to Nezu’s office. Aizawa took in a deep breath before opening the doors, leading the three teenagers inside. 

They all immediately looked upon the Principal of UA, sat behind a large wooden desk in all his fluffy glory. Momo and Mei both immediately thought he was a lot cuter than they imagined. 

“Ah, welcome, it’s good to meet you” Nezu greeted with a wide smile and shining eyes. 

Izuku and the girls both smiles and bowed courteously. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Principal Nezu” Momo replied, the other parroting seconds later. 

Nezu waved a paw in the air, “Just call me Nezu, I’m not your Principal” 

“Well then call us by our first names, it’ll save time” Mei suggested. 

Nezu nodded, “Very well, I am pleased you accepted my invitation, I’ve had an interest in meeting you for some time... but where are my manners? Please, sit down and have some tea” 

The three teens all frowned slightly at the chairs, teacups and teapot they were certain weren’t there a few seconds ago but sat down, pouring themselves a cup of tea each. 

Momo took a careful sip before an impressed smile broke across her face. “Gold Tips Imperial?” she questioned. 

Nezu smiled proudly, “That it is, I generally only use this tea on special occasions” 

“And what exactly is the purpose of this special occasion?” Izuku asked after a sip of his own tea. 

Nezu grinned, “Well, simply, I wanted to meet you three... it’s rare I see minds that can rival my own, especially in those so young” 

The three all smiled at the comparison to himself. 

“Well... we’d be lying if we didn’t want to meet you ourselves although we anticipated only doing so after applying here” Momo replied. 

Nezu’s eyes widened imperceptibly for a second. “Oh? You wish to be heroes?” Nezu questioned. 

Izuku chuckled briefly, “Let’s not beat around the bush Nezu, by now Aizawa has informed you all about what happened after we were kidnapped and our own training... you must have known there was a reason for it” 

Nezu nodded with a small smile, “That is true, I did predict so but hadn’t yet confirmed it... so despite running one of the largest companies in the country and being leaders in multiple technological fields, you wish to attend UA and become heroes?” 

Mei nodded in confirmation, “We’ve all wanted to be heroes since we were little... after... well, what happened on I-island" 

Nezu nodded solemnly, “I see, I should have expected that... well, when you turn eighteen, you are more than welcome to apply for the entrance exams, we would be honoured to have you” 

Momo smiled sweetly, “That’s very kind of you Nezu... but in the meantime, we were wondering if we’d be able to help each other...” 

Aizawa could feel his heartbeat in his chest and sweat dripping down his brow. He really didn’t like where this conversation was going. 

“Oh?... in what ways could you help me?” Nezu questioned, an amused grin on his face. 

“Well... first of all, we can improve your security systems” Izuku replied confidently. 

Nezu quirked an eyebrow. “Oh? Our security systems are some of the most advanced on the planet” 

Izuku briefly chuckled, “I don’t doubt that... although there is at least one... glaring flaw I've already noticed” 

“And what is that Izuku?” Nezu asked curiously. 

Izuku smiled and raised a hand next to his head, fingers pressed together. “It only detects the living” he answered, snapping his fingers. 

The doors to Nezu’s office then burst open and half a dozen grey and orange robots marched inside. 

Aizawa, flinched and dropped into a combat stance while Nezu remained unmoved. 

The robots were primarily grey although had dirty orange joints and marks on their arms and legs. Their ‘eyes’ were a glaring white and the one that lead them into the room had white marks on its head and chest. 

They each had a simple-looking metal sword on their backs about a metre long and a small blaster attached to the sides of their hips. 

Izuku grinned proudly, “And there we have it... a squad of my droids managed to infiltrate UA and make it all the way to the Principal’s office completely undetected” 

Nezu glanced to the screen to his side and went back through security footage of the past few minutes. There was absolutely nothing there, not that they were being blocked or anything... it was that they weren’t showing up. 

“Oh you won’t see them on security cameras, they have chips installed into them that obscures them from cameras” Izuku explained. 

Seeing that robots were not attacking, Aizawa relaxed slightly, releasing his scarf and standing upright again. “Izuku... what exactly are they?” he asked nervously. 

Izuku grinned, “These are my BX-series droids, otherwise known as commando droids” he explained. 

“These... you did not announce them to the public” Nezu added. 

“Of course not, how would the public optics look if I revealed robots perfectly suited for assassin work?” Izuku asked. 

“Well it would look suspicious in the best possible scenario... so I have to wonder why you are revealing them to me” Nezu replied. 

“That is because this part of what we can do to help you” Momo answered. 

Nezu was deeply intrigued now, he couldn’t believe he had missed something as obvious as not recognising robots in the UA barrier. But even more surprising than that was the fact that these commandos made it here completely unnoticed. 

They had even passed several students and even Present Mic yet went unnoticed. 

“I see... so what exactly are you offering me?” he questioned. 

Izuku leant forward and placed a small metal disc on the desk which quickly displayed a hologram above it. 

“You know I specialise in robotics, you yourself have several Dragonfly drones around UA and I distinctly remember seeing an order form for Protocol Droids from UA last week” Izuku explained. “But those are what I have been producing for the public, I have however produced a range of other droids for more... security type purposes” 

He waved his hand and the disc displayed the image of a humanoid robot. This looked similar to the commando droids except were skinnier, lacked the glowing eyes and their heads were larger. 

“These are my B1 Battle Droids” Izuku explained, “They’re incredibly cheap to produce and are excellent for security work, they have basic intelligence, enough to act semi-autonomously but also follow orders accurately” 

Nezu nodded, examining the image. “I see... I assume these are what your DX-series are based on?” 

Izuku nodded, “They are” he confirmed, waving his hand again and a new image appeared on the hologram. “The DX-series are more heavily armoured, more intelligent and overall, more skilled in both combat and movement” 

He displayed two videos of the different droid types. “As you can see, the B1’s can only move relatively slowly while the DX’s can move like a human athlete, being both strong and agile” 

Nezu nodded, “Although I am guessing that the DX’s are much more costly to produce” 

Izuku frowned slightly and nodded, “Yeah... for every one DX unit we can make about twenty-five B1’s” 

Aizawa was just stood to the side, deeply concerned that everyone else seemed calm about discussing what sounded a lot to him like the construction of a robotic army. 

“But, there are two other kinds of combat droids I have created as well” Izuku added. 

Nezu perked up, intrigued. “Oh? And what are those?” he asked. 

Izuku began to answer and then faltered for a second. “Well... actually, technically three I guess” he added, waving his hand through the projection. 

It changed to show a different kind of droid. This one had a broad armoured torso and lacked a head. Its arms were about twice as thick as the B1 or DX’s arms and the legs were about 50% thicker too. 

“This is the B2 Battle Droid” Izuku announced. “Also known as the Super Battle Droid, these are much more heavily armoured than both the B1’s and the DX’s and have heavier weapons... these are essentially what you would call in for riot’s and the like” 

Nezu nodded, looking over the displayed blueprints. “I see... they have weapons of some sort in their wrists?” 

Izuku nodded, “Right, they have twin blasters in both wrists and they’re more than strong enough to lift a fully grown man off his feet” 

“These blasters... what exactly do you mean?” Nezu asked, both intrigued and concerned. 

“Well... Mei, Momo?” Izuku turned to the girls for an explanation. 

Momo nodded, “Well, these blasters essentially fire a bolt of plasma made from a special energy-rich gas that I can produce, on high settings they can melt through most things but on low settings they can stun targets without causing any permanent damage” 

Nezu nodded, impressed. “So they could be lethal or non-lethal depending on the situation?” 

Izuku nodded, “Indeed, any of these units being used for security would be equipped with non-lethal weaponry only obviously” 

“Any of those units... but what about the last two?” Nezu questioned. 

“Well, the last of the ground droids is this” Izuku replied, waving across the projection yet again. 

This image showed the most humanoid looking one yet. It had primarily white plating with orange details and designs, a head with two small white glowing eyes that almost resembled a helmet of some kind and a body similar to an armoured soldier but with disproportionally long arms and legs. 

“This is the KX-series" Izuku announced, “These... are probably my most advanced models as there are only six currently in existence... they’re exceptionally well armoured, intelligent and agile... they essentially do the same sort of job as the commando droids except they are better in every single way” 

Nezu peered closer at the blueprints shown. “What... what is that metal? I don’t recognise it... it’s not plasteel or plastoid like your other droids... so what is it?” Nezu asked, genuinely bemused. 

The three teens all glanced at each other for a moment, having a silent conversation. They came to the unspoken agreement that if there was anyone they could trust with the secret of Beskar, it was probably Nezu. 

“Well... it’s an alloy of my own production” Momo answered, “The one that won me the competition all those years ago, Beskar it is called” 

Nezu nodded, “Ah, I remember reading about it although they were vague on the details” 

Momo nodded, “For good reason, it’s near indestructible and frankly, too dangerous to make public” 

“Near indestructible you say?” Nezu asked. 

Momo nodded, looking to Izuku expectantly. He sighed, “Do I have to show them?” he moaned. 

Mei and Momo both nodded. Izuku groaned but picked up the disc, tapped away at its base a few times before placing it back down. 

The projection now showed a video of Izuku wearing a suit of Beskar armour. About forty metres away, Mei lay on the ground with a 50. Calibre rifle pointed at him. 

Izuku on the video winced, closed his eyes and then went flying as the bullet struck him. 

He was knocked back nearly half a dozen metres and was groaning in intense pain but both he and the armour were in one piece. 

“What!?” Aizawa spluttered, “How did you come out of that unscathed?” 

Izuku shook his head, “I wasn’t unscathed, it cracked a rib and nearly ruptured my liver, but I survived” 

“But... how did you know you would survive it?” Aizawa asked. 

“We didn’t, we just... hoped” Izuku replied. 

“WHAT!?” Aizawa boomed, “WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU JUST HOPED?” 

“I mean... risks are inherent to any situation and we were... about... 65% sure it’d work” Izuku replied meekly. 

Nezu’s eyes were wide open. “I see... and these KX droids are made from the same material?” 

Izuku nodded, “They are, actually, even thicker armour than what I was wearing in the video, that was a prototype” 

Nezu rested his head in his paws for a moment. Already, this was far beyond what he had expected from this meeting and he had a sneaking suspicion that this was the tip of the iceberg. 

After all, he didn’t recognise where the video was taken but it appeared to be in some kind of facility in a cave... 

He looked back at the projection which had gone back to showing some of the droids. 

He’d be lying if he said that his Dragonfly drones hadn’t been a huge step forward in robots becoming commonplace. They were basically everywhere, there were millions of them worldwide being used in businesses, homes and even UA. 

His new protocol droids seemed like even more of a step forward. Robots people would more actively interact with rather than order around. 

But these... were these a step too far too quickly? 

He didn’t know how people would react to some of these robots being used by the police, maybe even the army. 

“Izuku...” Nezu spoke up. 

“Yes?” Izuku replied. 

“What exactly are you attempting to achieve in creating these droids of yours?” he asked. 

Izuku smiled, “Attempting to achieve?... nothing really... I just want to help people” 

“Are there no other ways for you to help people aside from creating these kinds of combat droids?” Nezu questioned. 

Izuku nodded, “Of course there are... but... well, our crime rate is almost entirely dependent on the presence of All Might... sooner or later, he is going to retire or even die... and then what will we do? There’s nobody who could take his place as the Symbol of Peace” 

Nezu’s eyes widened slightly, surprised this teenager was thinking that far ahead. “When All Might eventually is out of action, the crime rate is going to spike in a way we’ve never seen before... All Might is essentially a nuclear deterrent against Villainy... I want my droids to act the same way, a deterrent against villains” 

Nezu peered at this green-haired teen for a few moments. He was a very interesting individual. 

Quirkless, yet having gone further than most people could ever dream of in their lives. Already wealthier through his own merits than even most top 10 heroes... yet he still wanted to be a hero and save people and he’d already put forward a plan for when All Might had to retire, knowing it was an inevitability while knowing nothing about One for All. 

Well... if Sir Nighteye could put forward a potential successor... he felt he should be able to do the same. 

The meeting came to a close about an hour and a half later. 

Izuku had shown Nezu his last droid design which was actually only technically a droid. It was actually a dropship designed to transport his droids around to potential combat zones. It ran off a large droid ‘brain’ and did not require a pilot. 

He called this the HBP Droid Gunship. It was equipped with several heavy blasters at the front, sides and back, all run by the droid brain piloting the craft. While it could be used as a gunship, it’s primary use was transportation for his droids. 

Each of his droids could fold up and be stored on racks for ease of transportation. 

The gunship could store thirty B1’s or BX’s, fifteen B2’s or eight KXs. 

They had even shown Nezu proof that it worked, a video of this flying craft flying through the air over the Yaoyorozu Estate before dropping its cargo of thirty armed B1 droids. 

Frankly, Nezu was amazed at that. He learned that the HBP was apparently a joint project between Izuku and Mei. 

Izuku had handled the robotics side of it while Mei constructed the actual craft herself. 

The meeting went on for some time after that, Nezu asking why the three wanted to be heroes when they were already both wealthy and famous. 

The answer was frankly what he had expected. They wanted to save people themselves. 

The meeting ended with the three teens inviting Nezu to the estate later in the week, to show him what they called The Foundry. 

Aizawa started sweating at the mere prospect of Nezu going there. 

Much to Aizawa’s distress. Nezu did in fact, go there. 

The Saturday of that week Nezu arrived at the Yaoyorozu estate. He was greeted by Sebas at the door, offered a cup of tea (which he obviously accepted), and then taken to one of the public drawing rooms on the ground floor. 

There, he and Sebas exchanged polite, pleasant conversation for a few minutes until a sweaty and oily looking Izuku arrived. “Ah, good to see you again Nezu, sorry about my state, I ended up getting lost in my work and didn’t have time to get cleaned up” he apologised. 

Nezu waved a paw, drinking the last of his tea as he did so. “That’s quite alright, this is your house after all” he replied understandingly. 

Izuku smiled gratefully, “Now... care to see The Foundry?” he asked. 

Nezu grinned and nodded, hopping from the leather armchair he sat on. Izuku looked to Sebas, gesturing at Nezu with his eyes. 

Sebas nodded and knelt to Nezu. “Would you like for me to carry you?” he offered. 

Nezu hesitated for a moment but relented, sitting on Sebas’s shoulder for ease of movement. 

Izuku led Nezu down several corridors before they came to the wine cellar. Nezu just smiled, amused by the apparent entryway to a high-tech research facility being in a centuries-old wine cellar. 

Nezu’s eyes widened with surprise when they came to the large Beskar doors. “Remarkable... is this Beskar?” he gasped. 

Izuku nodded as he laid his hand on the large door and it read his hand. 

Nezu’s eyes were constantly wide as he was led through the several levels of security in this installation. He was amazed at the scanner that he passed through although he wasn’t surprised to see that under his species it only said: **ERROR**. 

Then they came into the antechamber leading into the three teen’s private workplaces and The Gauntlet. 

Waiting here were Mei and Momo, both smiling widely. Mei was covered in oil and what Nezu suspected to be soot while Momo wore a perfectly clean white lab coat. 

“Nezu, so good to see you again” Momo greeted politely, Mei nodding along. 

Nezu smiled, “It’s an honour to be here... this is a marvellous place” 

Mei giggled, “Sure is but we didn’t bring you here to admire The Foundry itself” 

Izuku nodded, walking forward and standing beside his two best friends. “Right, we’ve brought you here for a few demonstrations” 

“Ah, another part of your sales pitch of sorts?” Nezu asked. 

Izuku gave a small grimace and an unsure shake of the hand. “Not quite a sales pitch... more showing what we could offer in a trade” he replied. 

Nezu nodded, “Very well, what do you have to show me?” 

Izuku and the two girls lead him to The Gauntlet. Upon recognising the area as the place where they tested the prototype Beskar armour, he chuckled briefly at the recollection of seeing Izuku go flying. 

When Izuku tapped at a control panel and the white panels in the large cavern began to shift by themselves, Nezu nearly started salivating. 

The panels formed themselves into what resembled a city street. Shortly after this, several dozen glowing figures, the hard light holograms, appeared, all armed. 

Not long afterwards, a physical HBP flew down from the roof of the cavern, coming to a stop several metres above the ground. Dropping from it were thirty of the B1 droids. 

The droids soon engaged the holograms, dispatching of them relatively easily with only four casualties. 

Izuku gestured at the scene before him. “This is what we can offer you, security for UA, non-lethal incapacitations and absolutely no risk to human life” 

Nezu nodded, “I see... but why offer this to me and not the police, hero commission or the military?” he questioned. 

“Well Nezu... that’s because you’re the only one that may be able to get us what we want in exchange” Momo answered. 

“And... what would that be?” Nezu asked curiously. 

“Well... it’s something we’ve wanted to be able to do for quite some time” Mei began. 

Nezu held up a paw, “I can’t give you hero licences or anything like that, not without you attending UA first” 

Izuku shook his head, “It’s not that... although it is a licence of sorts...” 

“Well what is it then?” Nezu demanded. 

“Well... in essence... we want a hero agency” Momo answered. 

Nezu left the Yaoyorozu estate several hours later, having been taken on a tour and shown the kinds of tech that he hadn’t even known were possible yet. 

As Aizawa drove him back to UA, he thought on their request. 

They wanted the ability to use their droids for public security... essentially like an auxiliary police force or a PMC that did not take jobs. 

Nezu thought long and hard on it. It was true what Izuku had said earlier that week. Sooner or later, whether he found a successor or not, All Might would have to retire and as of right now, there was nobody that could take his spot. 

So... would it really be the worst thing in the world for this to happen? He probably could arrange it, he had enough... clout... with the government to force them to allow it. 

On their drive back to UA, they passed a store. Nezu saw a man in a mask run out of the door, his limbs extended like loose elastic and clutching several bags full of money. 

He glanced at his watch, given the patrol routes of the local heroes, that man would probably escape with his stolen money. 

The police were practically only for crowd control, investigative purposes and support work. All important jobs, obviously... but they never really caught criminals anymore, nor did their presence discourage crime. 

He took in a deep breath as he pulled his phone from his pocket, pressing a single button and putting it to his ear. 

It only rang twice before the call went through. He heard the sounds of industrial activity, mechanical clunking and whirring for a few seconds before a voice spoke up. 

“Hi, sorry Nezu, I didn’t waste any time getting back to work” Izuku greeted. 

“Can you promise me... your droids will help protect people?” he demanded, voice much harsher than it had been at any point so far. 

There wasn’t a second of hesitation. “Of course, that’s their only purpose” Izuku promised. 

“Then I'll do it, I’ll agree to the trade” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this chapter was a bit boring and full of background and exposition. It was kind of necessary to introduce what the three have been working towards with Izuku's robots.
> 
> The next chapters will be more entertaining with the next one having the public's reaction to the introduction of their new robotic overlords and then the one after that... they may just have to prove they can protect people.
> 
> As always, thank you very much for reading and I hope you enjoyed it, despite it being very exposition-heavy.


	9. Aegis Security and a Coming Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A shorter chapter than normal but that's to make a clear division between this one and the next.

The formation of Izuku’s droid security force was a slow process. Even Nezu’s influence had its limits. 

The government had agreed to permit the creation of it officially and to essentially permanently contract them to the police force with certain conditions. 

The first of which was that they needed a special facility to act as a kind of headquarters. Another was that they couldn’t be armed with deadly weapons unless in case of emergencies and a final point was that they could capture and hold criminals but they would turn them over to the police at the earliest opportunity. 

This was mainly to try and avoid any kind of privatised prison system which would focus on profit. 

While Izuku and the girls had no intention of doing so, they understood the concern. They’d probably assume the same thing if the roles were reversed. 

Fulfilling Izuku’s side of the bargain, a shipment of droids were delivered to UA. 

This included two hundred B1 battle droids painted white with UA’s logo emblazoned on their chests and shoulders in blue. It also came with twenty B2 super battle droids with the same colour scheme as well as a dozen BX droids. These were slightly different from the ones that Nezu had seen in his office. Physically they were the same except for the colour scheme, now matching the other droids, but their equipment was slightly different. 

These ones lacked the swords the previous ones had and instead carried these tall, hexagonal metal frames which became hand-held energy shields. These were designed to halt projectiles moving at high speeds, blaster bolts, bullets, thrown rocks etc. But solid objects moving slowly enough could move through the shield. This allowed the droids' blasters to extend through the shield and fire while remaining safe. 

These were designed as riot units by Izuku. While both kinds of BX droids were called commandos, the ones Nezu saw in his office were referred to as Infiltrators and these were nicknamed Guardians. 

The students at UA took a while to get used to the robots now stationed all around the campus. The B1’s worked in patrol groups of five, either patrolling the grounds or stationed at specific points. Nezu decided to keep the B2’s and BX’s in reserve for when they were needed. 

Within a few months of the droids arriving at UA however, the students and faculty had started to warm up to them. They kept out of the way for the most part but were also helpful to have around, they even made decent conversationalists as they each had their own personalities. 

The first years in particular appreciated their presence as they had the entire campus maps in their heads and so acted as near perfect guides and even had student timetables stored in their memories. 

Meanwhile, Izuku and Momo were taking charge of forming the new security force. They had acquired a small office building in the city centre to act as the base of operations. 

They modelled the way it worked almost like a hero agency, with a protocol droid acting as a receptionist to interact with visitors. 

The back rooms however were filled with storage rooms for the assorted droids, offices for human workers as well as an armoury and a command centre. 

They had also received permission from the government to use the HBP Droid Gunships for rapid deployment although they could not be armed, they had to be unarmed transports. That was also understandable and easy to change so they didn’t have any problems with that. 

At the new headquarters, because each of the droid types could fold themselves up for ease of storage in racks, they could store a very large amount of droids at any one time. 

They could store close to two thousand B1 droids, four hundred B2 droids, one hundred BX droids and the six KX units. 

At any one time, there were fifty B1 droids, eight B2 droids and two BX Guardians active in the headquarters to act as both staff and security. 

The KX units meanwhile were also always active. As the droids with the highest cognitive abilities by far, practically human in fact, they would run the command centre when nobody else was there while remaining ready for action at a moment’s notice. 

Five months after the process began, the government were satisfied and so issued the licence to Izuku and the girls. 

They called their new security force, Aegis Security. Each droid aside from the KX’s was coloured a light grey with a white kite shield printed on their chests, backs and shoulders. 

As they had promised to the government, all droids sent out on patrols were armed only with non-lethal weapons. Blasters set permanently to stun and shock batons primarily. 

Over the weeks before the beginning of their operations, Aegis had been working with the police and nearby hero agencies to work out patrol routes and also just to make sure everyone was aware that the armed robots were actually friendly. 

It was decided that each patrol group would consist of four B1 droids led by a BX Infiltrator, each armed with non-lethal blasters and stun batons. 

The B2’s would be reserved for active villain attacks, riots or even any kind of organised assault. The twin blasters in the B2’s could not be set to a stun setting and so they would not be a part of everyday patrols. 

The KX’s meanwhile were constantly prepared for war. Their Beskar plating made them nearly invincible and their blasters had both lethal and non-lethal settings. They also had a range of a new kind of grenade that Mei had created called Thermal Detonators. Some were explosive like regular grenades, some were EMP grenade and some were a special kind that she and Momo had created. This was simultaneously a flashbang and a smoke grenade. 

Understandably, although it had been announced by the government, the police force and many hero agencies, many civilians were not exactly keen to trust these new security droids. 

There were no outright hostilities against them but that was mainly because the B1’s were too dumb to have their feelings hurt and the BX’s were too focused to care. 

At least at first. A month after Aegis began its patrols, Mei went down to the Foundry to talk to Izuku who had been down there for three days now.

It wasn’t as bad as past times but they decided it would be best to nip it in the bud before it got to that point.

She walked into The Production Line, following the sounds of hammering and sparks. Passing several workbenches and conveyor belts, she found Izuku leaning over a battered and smashed B1 unit lying on a workbench.

Izuku was currently removing the broken armour plates to replace them and was doing so fiercely.

“Izuku? Are you alright?” Mei called out.

Izuku ceased his hammering for a second and looked over his shoulder at her before putting the hammer down. “Oh, Mei… no, no I’m not alright” he admitted.

Mei moved closer to her friend, “What’s wrong Zuku?” she asked softly.

Izuku leant against the workbench and patted the broken B1 fondly. “This is what’s wrong… the fact I have to either repair or scrap any of my B1’s…”

Mei sighed quietly, “Izuku… you knew from the outset that there were going to be casualties… they were practically made to be expendable”

“I know…. But…” he sighed, “Do you know how many B1’s have come back here practically in pieces?” he asked.

Mei shook her head, “I don’t know Izuku”

“Eighty-seven… do you want to know how many of those were damaged by villains?... none of them… these were all broken by the people they’re meant to protect” he snapped angrily. “They are there to keep those bastards safe and they attack them, rip their arms off, hit them with pipes, throw acid on them… why the fuck do they do that? They don’t do that to the police”

Mei took a few steps forward and leant against the workbench next to Izuku, wrapping an arm around his head and pulling it closer to her, planting a kiss on the temple. “It’ll take time Zuku… people just need to learn to trust them… but sooner or later, it’ll be like they were always there and nobody will pay them any mind”

Izuku sighed again but smiled at the comfort she was giving him. “Maybe… but how many of my droids are they going to kill before that happens?” he asked.

Mei tightened her hold on his head slightly, pulling it into her shoulder. “Too many… but it’ll be worth it if they save lives”

Izuku sighed again and his head drooped for a second before he pulled it back up. “You’re right… it’s a big change, it’ll take people time to come to terms with it… but in the meantime, I think we better deal with the people that have been breaking them in the first place…”

  
  


Over the next few days, Izuku made a point to visit the households of everyone he knew that had attacked one of his droids. Unbeknownst to the public, each droid recorded their vision if they were attacked for this exact reason. Given that most of the ones who attacked them didn’t bother hiding their faces, it made them easy to identify.

It was a bit of a fright for most people to see Izuku stood at their front door, four BX Guardians behind him.

He gave most people two options, pay a fine or go to prison for six months. Most people chose the first option. However, he also gave them a ‘get out of jail free card’ of sorts. He told everyone he spoke to that if they could defeat him in a fight, he’d let them off.

Seven people chose that option, each strong in body and quirk and each ended up laying on the ground, blood in their mouths and pride shattered.

If they chose that option, he let them off anyway, fighting him was punishment enough.

Some people however, had used their quirks to attack his droids. That was enough to qualify them as villains.

That meant instead of Izuku meeting them at their doors, an apprehension team of two B2’s and four BX’s met them. If they surrendered, they were arrested and taken to the police, if they refused then they were stunned by the group of robots and dragged to the police.

Within a week of these displays, attacks on his droids by the public had dropped to only one every week or two.

This had two main effects. One of which showed that just because they were not officially police, that didn’t mean that people could abuse them with no repercussions. Several of the quirk users had appealed for help from passing heroes or police officers as the droids took them away but none ever did, knowing that they had permission to do so from the government. This resulted in both fewer attacks on the droids but also surprisingly, more trust in them.

This was generally because many of the people who attacked them were the kinds of petty criminals that went practically completely unnoticed by heroes and even police, the kinds of people that negatively affect their local neighbourhoods. This made Aegis appear almost as a protector of the common people against the ones that the heroes couldn’t be bothered dealing with.

The other main effect was that it helped show the people of Japan their skills and efficiency. When specifically targeting one of the attackers, the droids were a force to be reckoned with, so far, nobody had escaped them after being confronted. This had conflicting effects, it made people nervous about them but at the same time it reassured them, it proved that they would be able to protect them if it came to it.

And that day would be coming sooner than they expected.

  
  


Seven months after Aegis began their operations, a man in a fine suit stood in his office on the top floor of the highest building in Deika City.

This man was Rikiya Yotsubashi, Grand Commander of the Meta Liberation Army.

And this day was a very special one to him. Today was the day his soldiers were ready to liberate the country.

He looked out over Deika City, proud of what he had already accomplished. Over the past year, he had secured Deika as a true ‘liberated’ district with every man and woman of fighting age willing to act as his soldiers for the liberation.

In total, he had over 100,000 soldiers across the country ready to fight for liberation, 60,000 of which were in Deika City alone and 15,000 of which were soldiers in the JSDF.

They had been planning this for years, each army, cell and individual soldier knew what they had to do.

In order to truly liberate Japan, they had to tear down any symbols that spoke against their message.

The two most obvious targets were the Government buildings in Tokyo and UA but recently, they had a new high priority target; Aegis Security and by extension, Yaoyorozu Industries.

Aegis was probably the most serious threat apart from the Military that remained loyal.

He knew most heroes would fight against them but they simply didn’t have the numbers to stop them, this would be a war focused on quantity rather than quality.

That left Aegis and the loyalist Military as the only forces in the country with the potential numbers to face off against them, especially as he had received reports that Aegis never stopped production of their droids. Nobody had any idea how many units they could call to combat at any given moment but the closest estimate was anywhere between 15,000 and 25,000.

He knew that Aegis was only active in Tokyo and the surrounding wards but he had heard rumours of special aircraft they had created that could transport strike teams across the country in a matter of hours.

That meant as much as they needed to destroy the symbols of their oppressed society, they needed to focus on the largest threats first. That meant eliminating the Military and Aegis.

If they could do that, their victory was practically guaranteed.

Curious entered the office not long after he collected his thoughts, an excited look on her face. “Sir? Is it truly time? Are we ready?” she asked gleefully.

Rikiya smiled and nodded in affirmation. “We are ready Curious, our time is finally at hand” he announced grandly. He took in a deep breath, savouring the moment.

“Give the orders, the liberation begins now”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, next chapter it all kicks off. The Meta Liberation Army will go head to head against Aegis' robotic army and Japan will see the true abilities of the droids.
> 
> FOR THE TRADE FEDERATIO... wait no... FOR AEGIS!


	10. The Meta Liberation War

The Meta Liberation Army’s initial strikes were sudden, shocking and devastating.

All across the country, cells of fighters took to the streets, causing chaos, injury and death wherever they went.

Most cells had their own individual targets, police stations, hero agencies and other public buildings. Some cells simply had the orders to roam the streets and cause as much chaos as possible to distract and hamper any kind of retaliatory action.

Several military bases and their commanding officers across the country openly declared their loyalty to the Meta Liberation Army. Some reiterated their loyalty and some were split down the middle resulting in open battle between soldiers in the same base.

As many as eight hundred pro heroes declared their support for the Meta Liberations Army across the country, in some cases, entire agencies did so.

Marching out from Deika City was 50,000 of the soldiers present, the army was made up of pro-heroes, civilian warriors and trained MLA members. Their destination was Tokyo. The other 10,000 soldiers remained in the city to defend it.

  
  


When the MLA began their assaults, the police were overwhelmed almost immediately. The ordinary officer had absolutely no training for this kind of situation and there simply weren’t enough SWAT teams to go around.

This left most cities, towns and villages in complete anarchy if not under complete control of the MLA within an hour of the attacks beginning.

Tokyo however, was a different story.

The police did not fare much better in Tokyo than the rest of the country, they were still overwhelmed and under attack almost constantly and the many hero agencies across the city were focused more on civilian rescue and evacuation rather than combat.

This left Aegis as basically the only force left in the city that could actually defend it.

At any one time, there were around two hundred patrols groups roaming the city and the surrounding wards. This meant there were roughly 1000 droids on the streets at all times.

These droids however were made for more police-type work, they only had stun settings on their blasters and batons.

Despite this, they were still a serious obstacle for the MLA cells in the city. As of right now, each battle between a droid patrol group and an MLA cell had a 50-50 chance of victory either way.

  
  


Izuku, Mei and Momo were alerted as soon as the attacks began. They had been at the estate at the time working on their assorted projects. Within ten minutes they had left the estate with their armour and weapons, leaving a sizable security force of droids at the estate.

Around twenty minutes after the attacks began, they arrived at Aegis’ headquarters and made their way to the command centre.

Upon their arrival, they found that the security force already there had set up defensive positions and were sheltering civilians inside who had come to them for shelter.

They assumed this was the doing of the KX units who acted as commanders while they weren’t there. This was confirmed when they made it to command, finding the six original KX droids, those now known as the command squad, manning the command centre.

Immediately, they started attempting to contact the government to request permission to use full force on the attackers.

They managed to get through multiple times but it sounded like the government was in complete and utter chaos so they couldn’t receive the permission they needed.

Still, that didn’t mean they had to sit on their hands and do nothing in the meantime. They had prior permission to use all non-lethal droids they had at their headquarters in an emergency situation.

They were pretty sure the country becoming an instant warzone classified as an emergency.

  
  


Nezu looked out of his office window, looking over the plumes of smoke, fire and flashes of light from distant explosions coming from the city.

He had as many students as would fit taking shelter in the lower floors of the school around the teacher’s training rooms. These were underground and reinforced with concrete.

There were several layers of defence in the school. The teachers were primarily guarding the students themselves. The twenty B2 droids were stationed at the main gate with sixty of the B1’s. The other 140 B1’s were stationed at different points inside the main school building.

They had yet to come under attack although Nezu knew it was only a matter of time before they did.

He was about to request aid from anyone willing to give it when one of the BX units entered his office. This was one with extra markings which signified him as a captain.

“Principal, message from Aegis Command” it announced.

Nezu nodded, “What is it?”

“Message begins; Nezu, this is Izuku, we’re sending a dozen gunships filled with droids to give you reinforcements, half will set up on the road leading to UA, half will join the security already there, if you can, get us a line to the government” the droid droned.

Nezu sighed with relief, he’d have to send them something very nice if they survived this.

“Good good…” he muttered, “Can you send a message back?” he asked the captain.

The droids nodded, “Roger roger” it confirmed.

“Then tell him that he’s a lifesaver and the decision to get him the PMC licence was the best one I ever made”

  
  


Tsukauchi was not having a good day. First of all his case against a gang of Trigger dealers had fallen through due to lack of any solid evidence and then half the city burst into flames.

Every police officer in the station was ordered to equip themselves with armour and weaponry immediately.

He didn’t know what was going on but he let out a silent prayer for Yaoyorozu Industries. The Plastoid armour they made for the police force would probably save a lot of lives today judging by how things were going.

He managed to find out from the chief that the Meta Liberation Army was attacking all across the city, at the moment there were only cells in Tokyo but there was an approaching army on its way from Deika City and that the JSDF was practically fighting an internal civil war.

The detective hadn’t exactly been keen on the formation of Aegis Security, he did appreciate the assistance in dealing with everyday criminals but the prospect of privatised police concerned him greatly.

Now though? He was thanking whatever god was up there that they existed, they might be the only reason they survive the next few days.

The police station came under attack several times from the MLA. Each time they managed to drive them off but every attack resulted in more injuries and casualties. Within an hour, only about half of the officers in the station were in a fighting state and more and more civilians were arriving to seek shelter.

The chief had been trying to communicate with other stations but everything was chaos, they hadn’t heard anything from higher up the chain of command since the orders to defend the station and they couldn’t even contact any heroes for help, they were either too busy with their own operations or had sided with the enemy.

That was why when the next MLA attack came, the largest one yet, most of the officers in the police station were certain they were done for.

But the MLA barely even had time to open fire with their own guns and quirks when a hail of red lasers scythed through their numbers, dropping most of them in an instant.

Tsukauchi and every other officer on the ground floor looked to where they came from to see a large group of Aegis Security droids marching down the street towards them, opening fire on the MLA.

The police let out a resounding shout of relief and defiance as the droids saw off what few unstunned members of the MLA remained. The droids then split into two groups, one half went to go and restrain the stunned MLA while the other half marched into the police station to join the cops.

One with a sword on its back and white markings across its head and chest stepped forward and called out.

“Who is the commanding officer here?” it asked in a firm tone.

Tsukauchi stood up and raised his hand, “At the minute that’ll be me” he replied.

The droid nodded and walked up to him. “Aegis Security response group eight” he reported. “We have three dozen units to aid the defence of the station”

Tsukauchi let out a relieved sigh, “Well thank god you’re here, we needed some backup”

“God had nothing to do with this” the droids replied, “If you wish to thank anyone, thank our creator”

Tsukauchi nodded, right, Izuku Midoriya… he got the feeling if they survived this he’d probably be considered a national hero after this.

The droids which had secured the stunned MLA fighters dragged them into the station and deposited them in the cells, not concerning themselves with their comfort or rights. They then joined the other droids and police officers in defending the barricades set up.

Tsukauchi looked at the captain droid just next to him which was currently aiming it’s rifle down the street, perfectly still and ready.

“So… you’re not going to leave?” he asked nervously.

“Negative, our orders are to hold this station and so we shall hold this station” it replied, not looking at him.

“Are you not scared of… you know… dying or anything?” Tsukauchi asked.

“I will endure a thousand deaths before I yield” it responded resolutely.

  
  


Izuku and the girls were staring at the assorted screens in the command centre. They had sent out nearly every single droid they had at their headquarters, over two thousand of them, to different strategic points of importance across the city, mostly police stations, government buildings and loyal hero agencies.

This left around 150 droids at the headquarters, mostly B2’s and BX’s, to protect the several hundred civilians which had come to seek shelter here.

They were still unable to get permission from the government to unleash their army into the city meaning they had to make do with what they had for now.

They were still receiving reports of MLA assaults all across the city, it seemed like every time they had seen everything they had to throw at them, another several hundred fanatics crawled out the woodwork.

They were severely outnumbered, they knew that much, even discounting the army of 50,000 marching towards the city, they didn’t anywhere close to the numbers the MLA currently did.

According to the reports coming in from across the city, the best estimate for MLA members in the city came to around 8 to 9,000.

They had around 2,500 non-lethal Aegis Units, 250 UA security droids, maybe 1,500 police officers still in fighting shape at the most liberal of estimates and a few hundred pro-heroes on their side in the city. This meant the MLA nearly had double their numbers and more of them kept appearing.

The buildings of importance were holding for now with the aid from Aegis but sooner or later, they would fall and until they heard from the government, they were limited in what they could do.

The streets and suburbs of the city however were a completely different story. The loyalists held most infrastructure buildings but the MLA ran the streets and were butchering everyone they could get their hands on that didn’t side with them.

The issue was, they didn’t have the numbers to take back control of the streets and protect the stations and government buildings at the same time.

That meant they’d have to take more… personal action.

  
  


With the arrival of Aegis reinforcements at UA, most of the teachers had been sent out into the city to help evacuate civilians or to fight the MLA.

One of these teachers was the Pro Hero Snipe who was currently in a makeshift sniper’s nest on the top floor of an office building overlooking the Metropolitan Government Building.

He was there to thin off the hordes of MLA that came to attack the building.

There was a sizable contingent of Aegis droids that had come to assist the defence of the building but it was clearly a priority target and so was under constant assault from more and more MLA.

About ten minutes after repelling the last failed assault, his earpiece crackled to life.

“Snipe, this is Nezu, do you read me?”

Snipe placed a finger to his ear, “Principal? I hear you, what’s the situation?” he asked.

“There’s an… operative coming to assist you, callsign Hunter, they’ll be there in less than two minutes, put them to work” Nezu instructed.

“Hunter? Who is it?” Snipe questioned.

“That doesn’t matter for now, all you need to know is that they’re a sniper with skills on par with you if not better and they’re friendly” Nezu responded.

Snipe’s eyes widened behind his mask. “Roger Nezu, what am I looking out for?”

“A figure in silver armour… you’ll know them when you see them” Nezu replied before the earpiece went dead.

Snipe nodded, rising from his prone position and looking towards the door and the sound of approaching footsteps.

Emerging through the door was a relatively slim figure in a black bodysuit underneath gleaming silver armour and a helmet. They had a holstered pistol at their waist and were holding an odd-looking rifle.

“Hunter?” Snipe questioned, one hand on his revolver.

The figure nodded and saluted for a moment, “Hunter reporting for duty, I’m here to help keep the MLA away from the building” they replied. Their voice was clearly being changed by a voice modulator but it sounded slightly feminine still.

He nodded, removing his hand from the holstered revolver. “Alright then, I heard you’re a good shot, that true?”

Hunter chuckled, “I can hit a headshot from over four kilometres away without a scope… is that good?”

Snipe just gulped nervously. “Yeah… yeah that’s good… what can you do with a scope then?” he asked.

Hunter held up their rifle, “With this one? A range of about three miles but right now I don’t need a scope” they announced proudly.

“Well alright then… I don’t know who the hell you are but you’re very welcome here, you and your weird rifle” Snipe decided.

Hunter nodded and chuckled, “Good, because I just got a report there’s another wave coming, let’s get to work” they announced, dropping to the ground and taking up a firing position out the window.

Snipe joined the odd figure, retaking his previous position. As Hunter claimed, a new wave of MLA fighters emerged from the surrounding streets and poured into the body-filled courtyard in front of the building.

Snipe was just lining up a shot through his scope when he saw the one he was aiming at literally burst and turn to dust.

He looked to his side in surprise and saw that indeed, that was Hunter’s doing.

“The hell kind of ammo you using?” he demanded, also opening fire onto the horde.

“Disintegration rounds… it’s primary use is to violate the Geneva Convention” Hunter announced with a chuckle as they cut a man in half at the waist with another shot.

Snipe shifted away from his new partner slightly, he wasn’t scared of many things but this ‘Hunter’ was definitely one of them.

  
  


Aizawa had been sent out from UA to help stranded SWAT teams evacuate back to the closest station as he was one of the only teacher’s trained to use firearms.

It had gone well so far. He’d spent the past twenty minutes pinned down with a dozen other SWAT officers, hiding in a makeshift trench in a road carved out by explosives and quirks.

There were maybe fifty MLA soldiers about forty metres down the road from them, all they had managed to do was keep them from advancing which meant they were locked in a stalemate for now.

Sooner or later however, they’d get their act together, push forward and destroy them.

He had just started mentally listing all his regrets in life, primary of which was never working up the courage to admit to Izuku that he was his father, when he heard the sound of what sounded like a rocket.

Assuming they were about to explode, he and the SWAT officers all hunkered down and braced for the explosion but it never came.

Working up a bit of courage, Aizawa peered over the trench to see a new figure stood about twenty-five metres away from them facing towards the MLA. He recognised this armour.

“Izuku?” he gasped.

Izuku ran forward towards the MLA currently taking cover behind a series of ruined cars, his twin blasters out and pointing towards them.

They understandably were startled by his sudden appearance and so fired at him. He felt bullets ping off his armour with no effect and even quirks did next to nothing against him.

He opened fire with his twin pistols, taking the heads off the ones not smart enough to duck down.

He slid over the bonnet of a car, kicking one of the MLA in the head as he did so. Tucking into a roll as he slid off the car, he brought his left arm up towards a group of five of them and unleashed his wrist-mounted flamethrower at them.

They immediately caught fire and began screaming in agony, dropping to the floor in a futile attempt to put themselves out.

He span on his heels, blasting the four other MLA fighters hiding behind the same line of cars as him. From behind him, two fighters ran towards him, intending to engage him in close combat.

He, in turn, ran towards them, grabbing one of them around the shoulder and neck and flipped him over his shoulder, sticking a Beskar knife into his neck as he landed on the ground.

He then ducked under a strike from the other one, jammed his knife into his knee before getting behind him, wrapping his arms around his head and snapping his neck.

Pulling his knife from the dead man and sheathing it again, his vision snapped up to see an MLA member less than three metres away from him pointing what looked awfully like a grenade launcher at him.

Izuku’s eyes widened under the helmet for a moment before the man’s head snapped back with a burst of automatic fire.

He looked over his shoulder to see Aizawa and the SWAT officers now pushing forward themselves, using the distraction and chaos he caused to advance safely.

Aizawa and the SWAT officers soon fell in next to him, hunkered down behind a new layer of cars.

“WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?” one of the officers shouted over the sound of gunfire.

Izuku pointed to the white shield printed on his pauldron. “I’m with Aegis Security, call me Outlaw” he called back.

Aizawa gave him a knowing look but didn’t say anything.

“Come on, we need to take these guys out so you can evacuate” Izuku instructed.

“Hang on, you can’t give us orders” one of the SWAT replied.

“Alright fine, I’ll leave you to it then” Izuku announced, beginning to stand up.

“WHOA WHOA WHOA WAIT A SECOND!” the same one shouted, grabbing onto his arm and pulling him back towards the ground. “We’ll listen alright, just give us a hand”

Izuku nodded, “Alright…” he looked to the five on the right. “You five stay here, give us covering fire, the rest of you will follow me, give me ten seconds and then advance” he commanded before jumping over the car and firing at a pair of MLA.

The SWAT officers exchanged a few looks and then looked to Aizawa who was the unofficial leader at this point.

He just shrugged, “Follow him I guess” he announced.

  
  


Kyoka Jirou was not exactly suited for a warzone. Her quirk made her much more sensitive to sound, almost painfully so at times. She wanted to be a hero so she knew that was something she’d have to overcome sooner or later.

Now though her head felt like it was splitting.

She and her parents had tried to flee to the safety of the closest police station to their house but had ran into a pack of MLA and had to duck down an alley.

That was about ten minutes ago, now they were hiding in a convenience store with several other families being guarded by half a dozen beat cops.

The MLA they had run into had found them and had brought friends. There were maybe twenty of them just outside the building, all firing guns and quirks into it.

The cops could do basically nothing, they only had handguns and didn’t even have body armour. Two of them had already been killed and a third was injured.

All the gunshots and quirks being blasted had left Kyoka huddled on the floor clutching her head, the noise being unbearable.

“WHERE’S OUR BACKUP?” one of the cops screamed as he ducked behind cover to reload.

“I DON’T THINK IT’S COMING!” another shouted back. “I CALLED IN ABOUT TEN MINUTES AGO!”

“OH FOR FUC-” the cop’s furious shout was halted when he fell to the ground, bleeding from the throat.

Still clutching her head, Kyoka got to her knees, ready to try and make a break for it if she had no other choice.

It seemed like that would be the only option when the last two cops were cut down in a hail of machine gun fire.

Kyoka and her parents were about to try and make a desperate dash for the back room and hope there was a way out through there when they heard a shout come from outside.

“HEY! PICK ON SOMEONE YOUR OWN SIZE!” came a loud cry.

Kyoka and the MLA alike all turned to face the source of the voice.

There they saw a figure wearing thick, heavy-looking silver armour that was completely free of blemishes. There was what Kyoka would have called a jetpack on their back if she was in a sci-fi and they were holding a weird-looking rifle.

She did however recognise one thing, the shield on their shoulder that marked them as Aegis Security.

The new figure dashed forward, opening fire with their weapon as they went. The rifle let out a storm of red lasers, scything through the MLA outside the store, literally cutting one in half at the waist.

The remaining dozen MLA returned fire, opening up with their guns and firing quirks at them.

None of them seemed to have any effect, the bullets just ricocheted off the shiny armour and the quirks just impacted against it with no visible harm done.

The hulking figure ran right into the middle of the group, slinging their rifle over their shoulder. They backhanded the closest MLA so hard Kyoka saw some of his teeth fly out his mouth before grabbing the next closest by the face and plunging a blade drawn with their other hand into her neck.

Understandably terrified of this seemingly invincible adversary, half of the remaining MLA attempted to run. They weren’t having that though.

They quickly grabbed a pair of metal orbs from their waist and threw them at the retreating soldiers. They both exploded at the group’s feet leaving them without a leg to stand on.

The five who remained closest to her all in unison decided to give it one last go and all charged the figure at once.

The armoured figure pulled a metal rod from the small of their back, twisted it, which caused it to extend, becoming around a metre long and a glowing red blade appeared at one end of it.

They swung this around at their five attackers in a wide arc and the red blade cut through them like they were made of foam.

The first four collapsed to the ground with glowing, burning slash marks across their chests while the fifth in line, being shorter than the others, became even shorter as their head was separated from their neck.

Kyoka and the other people hiding in the store were just peeking out at this display with shocked, wide eyes.

The figure turned to face them and then walked towards them, shrinking their weird glowing spear thing and putting it back in its original place.

“Is everyone alright here?” they asked, their voice clearly modulated.

With Kyoka’s hearing she could tell that the voice was feminine underneath but they couldn’t tell much more than that.

“Well… we’re fine but you got here too late for the cops” her dad replied sadly.

The figure just looked down at the police officers on the floor, only one still alive with a bullet in his shoulder.

They sighed loudly, “Well… it’s a real shame but we need to get you guys to safety, come with me, i’ll take you all to the station” they instructed, bending over and picking up the injured cop, throwing him over their shoulder.

“Hang on a sec” Mika Jirou called, “Who are you exactly?”

“Oh I'm sorry, call me Knight, I'm with Aegis Security” they introduced themselves with what looked like a brief curtsey. “I’d love to get to know you all better but the MLA are still burning most of the city, we need to get you to shelter now”

  
  


With the last MLA member dispatched, Izuku holstered his twin blasters at his hips and turned around to face the SWAT behind him. Most were wiping their foreheads or just leaning against one of the cars previously used as cover, both surprised and relieved they were alive.

He didn’t have that much time to rest however as Aizawa strode over to him.

“So then ‘Outlaw’... what do we do now?” he asked, his tone of voice making it very clear he knew who he was.

“Now I escort you back to the nearest police station before heading to the government building” Izuku replied.

“Why do you need to go there? Is it under attack?” Aizawa asked.

“Nearly constantly but our droids are more than capable of seeing them off, as are Snipe and another of our operatives” Izuku replied, “No, I need to go there in person because the bosses need permission to use everything they’ve got to retake the city”

“Hang on a second” one of the officers spoke up, “You’re telling me you guys have more than what we already know about?”

“Oh yeah, far, far, far more than you’ve seen” Izuku replied. “All the droids in the city now apart from the supers are only armed with stun weaponry… the ones in reserve? Not so much, that’s why we need permission to use them”

“Well if you can kick these lunatics out of the city then go give the government a kick up the ass” the officer replied, voice somewhere between indignation and pleading.

“Will do, just as soon as you get to safety” Izuku replied.

Aizawa shook his head, “No, you get there now, I’ll lead them back”

Izuku gave him a long look through his helmet, “You sure you can make it?”

“We’ll do our best” Aizawa responded.

Izuku nodded, “Alright, good luck everyone” he said before rising into the air, the jetpack on his back activating.

  
  


Izuku’s day wasn’t exactly going how he expected. What he had expected today to be was morning violin practice, breakfast, looking over Yaoyorozu Industries’ finance sheets, Lunch, maintenance work on faulty B2 units at the Aegis HQ, Dinner, late night tinkering and sleep.

Now he was wading through nearly thigh deep piles of corpses leading to the government building to find someone with enough authority to finally give him permission to release the army.

Understandably on edge from the constant attacks, the police and security force of the building did fire at him once they saw him approach. They were dissuaded from doing so any more when all eighty droids in the foyer turned and pointed their weapons at them, politely yet firmly advising them to not shoot their creator again.

With little more than a few scratches on the now slightly blood-covered armour, Izuku strode into the foyer and turned to one of the security officers.

“Who’s the most important person in this building?” Izuku demanded, his voice modulated by the helmet.

“Erm… that’ll be the Prime Minister” he replied nervously.

“Huh, would have thought he'd be evacuated” Izuku replied.

“He was going to be… but the evacuation point was a military airbase which is under the control of MLA sympathisers” he informed him.

“Oh, makes sense… so where is he?” Izuku asked.

“...You’re with Aegis?”

Izuku pointed to the shield on his shoulder, “Yes, now are you going to tell me or am I just going to have to go looking?”

“No… he’s on the second sublevel” the guard replied.

Izuku was stopped several times on his way to the Prime Minister, amazingly, he only had to knock out one overly zealous guard, the rest were quite reasonable.

Finally, he found him, currently not looking exactly the way a head of government should.

His hair was a mess, his suit was crumpled, his shirt was clinging to his chest from nervous sweat and his tie was around his forehead.

Izuku just sighed quietly and took off his helmet.

“Prime Minister?” he began to get his attention.

“Huh? Who are you?” the Minister snapped, eyes wide with terror.

“Sir, I’m Izuku Midoriya, head of Aegis Security… pretty much the main reason Tokyo isn’t currently held by the MLA” Izuku replied, a slight hint of extreme sarcasm in his words.

Clearing his throat for a few seconds and throwing the tie/headband to the side, the Prime Minster attempted to look more… sane.

“Ah yes, very good… it’s excellent to meet you, despite the circumstances” he replied, voice in a mask of calm professionalism.

“You too sir although I have to ask what the hell you’re doing” Izuku responded. “We’ve been trying to get in touch with you or someone else in the government for nearly the past three hours… we could have secured the city by now if you’d just been by the phone”

“Erm… about that…” the Prime Minister began.

Izuku held up an armoured hand, “I don’t want excuses, I’m here now so I want verbal permission, can we use our reserve forces to secure the city?” he cut him off.

The Prime Minister stared hard at him for a minute. “...You can retake the city?” he asked.

Izuku nodded, “We can, within a matter of an hour or two”

“And your reserve forces… they were the lethal kind right?” he asked to confirm.

“They are” Izuku confirmed.

“...Alright then, you have my permission”

  
  


Osaki Ryoichi lived an ordinary life for the most part. He worked a 9 to 5 job at an accountancy firm, he had a wife and an eight-year-old son and enjoyed taking walks through the park on his lunch breaks.

He was also a fanatical supporter of and an officer in the Meta Liberation Army.

He was currently at a staging area in the very park he used to enjoy taking walks through, about a ten-minute march away from the government building. Including himself, about 3,000 fighters had gathered together to make an overwhelming push against the building and cut the head from the snake.

Over the past hour or so, more and more of his comrades had been joining the growing assault force although less than expected. Some gave reports of heavily armoured figures with Aegis’ insignia on their armour absolutely slaughtering squads and even an entire company with the aid of some of their droids.

That was a large concern but there were only reports of three of these figures being in the city and there was no chance they could assault a force of their size, even with support from their droids.

Ryoichi was about to give the order to begin the march when he realised that another force had been given the same order.

Coming from down several streets surrounding the park came the sound of marching. Metallic and in eerily perfect unison.

There started to come cries of surprise and fear from the outer ranks of the assault force as they saw what was making these noises.

Ryoichi used his quirk to levitate ten metres in the air and he too, saw what they were so frightened of.

Aegis Security’s standard patrol droids were coloured in a light grey with white shields on their chests and shoulders. They were designed to look relatively non-threatening as they were to be used for similar purposes as police officers.

These droids currently surrounding them were not designed for the same purpose.

They were the same kinds of droids but they were not coloured the same. These were an oily black colour with white skulls painted over their heads. They also still had an insignia on their chests and shoulders but this was not a shield.

These were marked with white daggers.

These were Aegis’ solution to an invading enemy force and a deterrent against any other attempts after it was put down.

This was the Aegis Death Corps, 80,000 B1’s, 15,000 B2’s, 2,500 BX’s and 800 armoured units. The first of these armoured units was named the NR-N99 Persuader Class Enforcers, nicknamed the Tank Droids or the Snail Tanks, an armoured droid with a singular wide tread in the centre of the vehicle and cannons on each side. There were 200 of these.

The second armoured unit was called the DSD1 Dwarf Spider Droids, simply nicknamed the Spider, of which they had 600. These stood at two metres tall with four legs and a blaster cannon on its front which could both fire rapidly as well as more powerful charged shots.

And this was currently marching towards Ryoichi and the assembled MLA assault force.

From his vantage point above the crowd, Ryoichi saw how the army coming from all directions began to open fire into his own army. The previous droids they’d faced could only stun.

He could clearly see, these did not have the same restrictions.

He watched as the outer layers of his force, despite attempts to fight back, were being quite literally shot to pieces. The glare of the thousands of red lasers emerging from the front ranks of these jet-black death machines were scything through the MLA ranks like a hot knife through butter.

Panic quickly spread throughout the army, they were vastly outnumbered, hopelessly outmatched and completely surrounded.

Ryoichi watched as what he had called ‘The True Heroes’ a group of over 100 pro-heroes that had sided with them attempted to charge the robotic lines. He then watched as they were cut down in an instant as a new burst of blaster fire emerged from the Corps.

Well… this was it, it was over, Ryoichi thought to himself. Their mission to eliminate the rotten, festering heart of the government was dissolving before his eyes even faster than his army was.

He barely even noticed the red blaster bolt that struck him in the stomach, making him fall to the ground.

He never knew if it was aimed or a stray shot, he never knew what would become of the rest of the MLA after he was gone and he never knew what would happen to his family.

He only knew three things. That the main fighting force en route from Deika city most likely had no idea this army existed, that his army had been cut down to practically the last man and that looking down the barrel of a blaster pointed directly at his head by an oily black droid physically incapable of mercy or empathy was a terrifying way to die.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want an idea for what I was picturing with the marching droid army, watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYi9s0xbsoI
> 
> As always, thank you very much for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.


	11. The Counterattack Begins

Tokyo had been firmly back in the hands of the government for around four hours when the military finally arrived. They had been made aware of the black, skull painted robots guarding the city and knew they were friendly although that didn’t stop some of the more jumpy soldiers shooting a couple of them, much to Izuku’s frustration.

They’d only lost about 200 while sweeping the city and now, his fucking allies had killed another 30. Numerically this was insignificant but emotionally, it hurt.

Izuku, Momo and Mei had returned to Aegis headquarters to oversee the reclamation of the city and there they remained as the military arrived. Then, at around 9 at night, Izuku received a message that the Prime Minister wanted him at a meeting at the government building.

Leaving the Korps in Momo, Mei’s and the command squad’s capable hands, he quickly made his way there, flying over the streets with his jetpack to save time.

Making his way through the building, he was directed to a meeting room the Prime Minister and several military officials had commandeered as a command room of sorts. Walking in past the soldiers stationed at the door, he found the room in a state of disorganised chaos.

He saw men and women in fatigues poring over maps and radios as well as an older man in a fine military uniform, clearly the commander here. The Prime Minister was keeping to the side, deciding he wasn’t exactly suited to help in this kind of a situation.

Izuku’s entrance into the room drew most people’s eyes and the room grew silent for a second.

“Well… isn’t this a fun bunch of people.” he commented as he removed his helmet, shaking his bushy hair out.

“Who the hell are you?” the commander demanded.

The Prime Minister took this opportunity to stand up. “General, this is Izuku Midoriya, head of Aegis Security, I invited him here to assist in our plans.” he explained, giving a brief nod of the head to Izuku. “Midoriya, this is General Saito, currently in charge of the loyalist military.”

Izuku gave the general a respectful bow, one he did not return.

“Sir, why exactly is a civilian teenager in the war room?” he demanded through gritted teeth.

“Well… as I said general… he’s the head of Aegis Securi-”

“That does not make him military or government and therefore he has no business in this room.” the general snapped.

“Tell me General, how much of the military has sided with the MLA?” Izuku asked, crossing his arms over his chest. “Or rather, how many men have remained loyal?”

“That is classified information.” Saito boomed.

“Because last I checked,” Izuku continued, completely unfazed, “There were just under 50,000 soldiers in the JSDF in total and around 15,000 of them have rebelled… that would leave you 35,000 men or thereabouts.” Izuku summarised. “Meanwhile, I have just under 100,000 combat-ready droids in this city.”

“And your assistance in retaking Tokyo will be acknowledged.” the general reluctantly admitted.

Izuku scoffed, “Assistance? General, Aegis security is the only reason the city is still standing and the only reason there is anyone in this building left to talk to… and when was the last time you were in combat yourself? You look like you haven’t fought or fucked anything for decades.”

The Prime Minister let out a hushed snicker from the corner of the room.

Saito’s nostrils flared so widely Izuku reckoned he caught a glimpse of his brain up there. “GET THIS CIVILIAN OUT OF THE WAR ROOM!” he shouted.

The pair of soldiers that were stationed outside the room burst in and grabbed onto Izuku’s shoulders. Izuku responded by flipping one of them over his shoulder and slamming his head into the heavy wooden table while disarming the other before punching him in the throat with an armoured fist.

As the two soldiers lay unconscious on the ground, Izuku glared at the general. “Alright then General Saito, let me make one thing perfectly clear… as of right now, you are not in command of the situation in any way and you don’t have the forces to take on the MLA… I do, therefore you will listen to what I have to say, you don’t have to like it, but you do have to listen.” Izuku hissed angrily.

“Midoriya, you are not a member of the military, you have no security clearance and no experience leading troops” Saito argued.

“And you do? When was the last time the JSDF saw combat?” Izuku retorted, “Let me make this very clear, If I wanted to, I could press a finger to my ear, give a single order and every single soldier in this city would be dead in a matter of hours. I have over double your number of an army that is stronger, faster and more obedient. I understand that this is an unprecedented event but we’re facing an unprecedented threat. In this crisis, I have the largest military force in the country… so, I’ll say again, you will listen to what I say **to the letter.** ”

Izuku took in a deep breath for a moment to calm himself down. "We will save the country, and then AFTERWARDS, we can have a pissing contest about who had the right to do what. For now, the priority is putting the fire out, not starting new ones because you don't want to work with me."

The general glanced around the room nervously for a minute before exhaling loudly. “...Fine, but when you fuck this up, keep in mind the blame is all yours.”

Izuku chuckled, “Sure thing General, now then, care to explain the plan to me?”

The plan was actually very simple, or at least, it was after Izuku changed basically all aspects of it.

Izuku’s amended version of the plan had the loyalist military moving to secure the rebel military bases and as many surrounding cities, towns and villages as they possibly could.

The vast majority of the armed forces that had sided with the MLA had left their bases to join the main force, leaving only relatively small defensive forces to defend them. Izuku assumed that word of the Death Korps had made its way to the main MLA force and they had decided they needed all the numbers they could get to have a chance at winning.

General Saito and his officers would remain in Tokyo to direct the military’s reclamation of the cities and bases while Izuku, Momo and Mei would lead the majority of the Death Korps to face off against the MLA.

Around 1500 standard Aegis patrol bots remained functional in the city, they would remain as security.

Around 90% of the Korps would be taken to face off against the MLA, the other 10% was being tasked with assisting the reclamation of the military bases.

  
  


Since they would not be moving out until the morning, Izuku headed back to Aegis headquarters for the night. Sebas would be fine back at the estate, there was still a sizable security contingent there so they didn’t need to worry about that.

He walked through the security door into the command centre, his helmet held under his arm.

Immediately, he spotted Mei and Momo stood next to each other, poring over maps for the mobilisation tomorrow. They were both still in their armour but had also forgone their helmets.

They both looked up at him as he entered and gave him soft smiles which he returned.

With no need for words, the two girls approached him and they all wrapped their arms around each other, clinging together tightly.

Izuku wrapped his arms around their shoulders to grab the backs of their heads and pulled them towards him, their foreheads all touching.

They stayed locked together in their embrace for several minutes, none of them saying anything.

Eventually, they all pulled apart slightly but not before Izuku gently kissed them both on the temples.

“This… has been a hell of a day.” he muttered.

Mei chuckled once as Momo just nodded. “That’s one way of putting it, yeah.” Mei agreed.

“What would we normally be doing by now?” Momo wondered aloud.

“Erm… by now, I think we’d be finishing up our work in The Foundry and thinking about heading to bed… apart from Mei, it’d still be too early for her.” Izuku replied.

Mei just nodded proudly, “Sleep is for cowards and weaklings.” she announced.

“And now… well, aren’t you essentially giving orders to the head of the military?” Momo asked.

Izuku nodded once, “Basically, whether they’ll actually follow them is another matter entirely though… still, I gave them the job they’re more suited for.”

“Oh yeah, and gave us the difficult one.” Mei agreed, “Remind me again, why exactly am I being forced into being one of the three commanders?”

“Because there’s no chance in hell I’m giving anyone else in the country control over a third of the Korps.” Izuku replied immediately.

“...Yeah that’s fair.” Mei conceded.

“Still Mei, you should probably read up on battlefield tactics before tomorro-” Momo began, getting cut off by Mei raising an armoured hand.

“If you tell me to read ‘The Art of War’ I will shoot you in the face.” Mei warned.

Momo just held both hands up next to her head with a small grin, “Alright, alright, maybe another time.” she relented.

Mei scoffed, “Another life maybe.” she muttered.

Izuku shook his head in amusement and took a seat on a nearby chair, firmly dumping his helmet onto the closest table. He ran a hand through his bushy hair, shaking it out slightly.

“I… I’ve completely lost track of how many people I killed today.” he admitted. “The last number I remember was something around fifty.”

Mei scratched the back of her head, “I used all sixty of my disintegration rounds today and I didn’t miss a shot… so that’s at least sixty.”

Momo nodded, “I was on something like thirty-five I think.”

Izuku leant back in his chair and let out a loud sigh. “...We’re seventeen years old and we’ve become practically immune to killing people… the fuck does that say about us?”

“What we already knew,” Mei replied immediately, “We’re all screwed up in the head.”

Momo opened her mouth to protest but shut it again several seconds later, no legitimate argument forthcoming.

Izuku just nodded, having no argument either. “Well, how do you two rate our chances over the next few days?” he asked after a moment.

“Pretty good actually, even with the extra 12,000 or so rebel soldiers joining the main army, we still outnumber them by like a third.” Mei answered.

“But the issue is command, we are limited to commands coming from just the three of us while they will have more commanders in the field.” Momo added.

“True… but one of our advantages is the fact that our orders can be transmitted and understood nearly instantly, add that to the Korps not being capable of fear and therefore will never retreat.” Izuku replied. “Plus, as far as I can tell, we have more armoured units than they do.”

“Maybe but we don’t know how the Snails or Spiders will actually perform in combat since they’ve never been deployed before.” Mei argued.

Izuku just nodded, “That is a fair point but all we can do is hope for the best… but keep in mind, we do still have a few… unconventional tactics.”

  
  


Toshinori sighed loudly as he dropped into his seat. Today had been… a really fucking bad day.

He’d seen far too much death that he couldn’t stop for one person and the worst part? He couldn’t do anything for most of the day. His three-hour time limit had made him next to useless. He managed to get a few hundred people to police stations and other safe zones and beat up a fair few MLA fighters… but ultimately he barely made a difference.

He spunspan around in his seat to look out the window at the darkened city, several fires still blazing.

He hated to admit it… but today wasn’t a day that belonged to him, the heroes, the police or even the military. The only reason this city was currently safe to walk around in was Aegis Security.

At first, he hadn’t really paid much attention to their creation. He’d heard the stories about the ones running the company, Midoriya, Yaoyorozu and Hatsume.

David had spoken to him about them and what happened to their parents many times over the years, it was still one of his greatest regrets that such a thing happened. Then, of course, he had heard about how they managed to fight their way out of captivity and dismantle a platoon of American PMC contractors.

While that was genuinely impressive, it also deeply worried him for several reasons. The first of which being that such an operation could come to exist without anyone knowing.

The second reason that worried him was the fact that somehow, three sixteen-year-olds had the training and skills to kill/capture an entire company of trained soldiers with only what they could take from their enemies. It was impressive, there was no denying that, but it was also very worrisome.

Still, at some point, he’d have to meet them and thank them. So many more people would have died if it weren’t for their droids.

Then, something occurred to him. He was pretty certain after this is all over, the entire country will be calling them heroes…

And Midoriya was quirkless…

Maybe he had found a successor of his own.

  
  


At 6am sharp the next morning, the Death Korps and the loyal JSDF set out on their missions. The Korps was split into thirds, one under the command of each of the teenage warriors.

From the command squad’s best calculations, there were around 62,000 in the main force. Also from more accurate estimations made with the benefit of daylight, there were around 1200 armoured vehicles in the main force, including several dozen main battle tanks.

This was what presented the biggest problem for Aegis. That meant they actually had less armoured units in total, contrary to their previous assessment and they were completely untested in actual combat.

Even with the addition of the soldiers the infantry droids could easily defeat the enemy soldiers, it would most likely prove costly but it could definitely be done. Their vehicles would be the tricky part, especially since the loyal JSDF were reporting activity at rebel airfields leading them to suspect they may be receiving air support.

This was another major issue, while Aegis had a considerable fleet of dropships, they were unarmed, complying to the original agreements made when forming the company.

Still, even though they were unarmed, that didn’t mean they had no offensive capabilities.

  
  


One slightly frustrating development was the arrival of a small contingent of army officers sent there by General Saito to keep an eye on them.

They couldn’t exactly do much to them so they decided to just resolutely ignore them.

Despite being the one responsible for their creation, it still surprised Izuku to see an army of his own creations marching along an empty highway, dozens of his dropships and armoured units moving alongside.

Still, he’d spent most of his life surrounded by robots so he was more or less used to it. The officers travelling with him however were notably nervous.

He decided to try and chat to them, see if they’d calm down at all. “Hey.” he called out to the closest one to him.

The relatively young looking officer’s eyes snapped to him quickly, clearly on edge. “Yes?” he responded.

“You don’t need to be so nervous, they’re not going to do anything to you.” Izuku reassured him.

“Yes well…” he trailed off, glancing at the gleaming black shell of a B2 nearby with a white paint skull on it, “You’ll forgive me if their appearance is a little bit off putting.”

Izuku quickly chuckled, “That’s the point.” he explained, “They’re decorated like that to cause fear, even the name is for that purpose… after we beat the MLA, do you really think anyone else would dare try anything while the country rebuilds?” he asked, “Because I really doubt it.”

The officer removed his helmet for a moment and wiped his forehead, “Maybe… but honestly the most unnerving thing is the fact that you had an army over double our size and we had no idea it existed.”

“It wasn’t as if it was a complete secret.” Izuku defended, “High enough ranking members of the government and military were made aware of it, if you’d never heard of it before that’s just because they didn’t tell you.”

The officer nodded with a small bitter smile, “Yeah, sounds about right.” he muttered.

Izuku glanced at him again and held out an armoured hand to him as they marched, “What’s your name? I’m Izuku Midoriya.”

The officer snorted with laughter for a moment before taking his hand and shaking it. “First Lieutenant Takei Saito.” he introduced.

“You’re the general’s son?” Izuku asked, withdrawing his hand from the shake.

“Yep, military’s the family business,” Takei replied, “Still doesn’t mean I was important enough to be told.”

“Ouch, your dad didn’t even tell you about this?” Izuku asked.

Takei shook his head, “No but honestly I’m not surprised, he’s not exactly been… the most present or caring father.”

Izuku shrugged slightly “Well, at least you have one, don’t be so quick to write him off.” he recommended.

Takei nodded, scratching the back of his head, “...sure, guess I am still lucky in that respect.” he admitted.

Izuku clapped his hands together, “Ah, I’ve just had an idea, people normally fear things they don’t understand, so why don’t you ask me questions about my droids?”

Takei thought for a few seconds before nodding, “Sure, I am pretty curious anyway…”

  
  


“Hey... I had a thought.” Clay announced.

“Oh no, he’s had another one.” Bargain groaned.

“Hey, come on, they’re not all bad.” Clay argued, gesturing his arms around the enclosed space he was in.

“They’re not all good either.” Scope replied.

Clay folded his arms together, the metal scraping slightly, “Alright fine, I don’t want to tell you now.” he pouted.

“Good, we don’t want to hear it.” Bargain snapped.

“Come on Bargain, give him a chance.” Paradox ordered in a calm tone.

Bargain sighed quietly before nodding, “Roger that sir.” he relented.

“Alright then, go ahead Clay.” Paradox added.

“Thanks boss… I was just wondering, do they call us Hazard Squad because we get sent into hazardous situations or because we’re just a bunch of liabilities?” Clay asked.

These four figures made up the Hazard Squad of Aegis Security. They were all the elite white and orange patterned KX units. They each had two inch thick Beskar plating across most of their bodies, only dropping to half an inch at their joints to allow for rapid movement.

As well as being the most heavily armoured and well equipped of Aegis’s forces aside from the creators themselves, they had gone through the most rigorous combat programming and were the most intelligent.

Frankly, they were basically human just going off their intelligences and unique personalities.

There were twenty squads of four KX units among Aegis’s numbers including Hazard Squad. The original six were not counted among this number, they were the Command Squad and were designed more for tactical direction rather than combat.

Most squads had their own purposes, Havoc Squad specialised in ambushing forces much larger than themselves, Hunter Squad were designed for infiltration and assassination, Harbinger Squad were designed to lead as vanguards and the Heavy Squad were demolition specialists.

Hazard Squad were shock troopers, what Izuku called ODST units, Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. They were inserted into combat from mid air inside Beskar plated drop pods to take the enemy by surprise. They moved quickly and caused mass confusion and destruction with their devastating form of rapid combat. Under normal situations that would require their deployment, they would be working on their own, this time however, they were being accompanied by a detachment of Infiltrator Commando droids as they were the only other models that could keep up with them.

Hazard Squad were currently suspended from the underside of a specially modified dropship, flying much higher than most of the others. Their accompanying Commando droids were attached to their own dropships, sans drop pods. They were at a slightly higher elevation to the dropships accompanying the Korps.

They were under the command of their creator, Izuku. He had… an unconventional use planned for them. They were essentially a trump card of his to be used for a very specific purpose if his original plan didn’t work.

“Hey… guys?” Clay asked over the comms nervously.

“What is it Clay?” Scope asked.

“Has erm… has this ever been tested before?” Clay then asked, looking over several of the screens inside the pod.

“If you’re talking about the pods, yes, they’ll survive an impact from this height.” Bargain replied.

“What about us?” Clay asked.

“...You know that is actually a good point.” Bargain admitted, “Boss, are we going to survive this?”

“Well…” Paradox began hesitantly, “I sure hope so.” he replied with a nervous chuckle.

  
  


Based on information provided to them by the military and their own reconnaissance efforts, Aegis discovered that the MLA forces had split into three groups. One group was taking the bulk of the armoured vehicles through Shizuoka towards Tokyo, the other two groups consisted of the bulk of their infantry forces that couldn’t be fitted into the vehicles. They were travelling cross country separately north of the route that the vehicle convoy was taking, essentially going in a straight line from Deika City in the Aichi Prefecture towards Tokyo.

In response to this, Aegis also split into three groups, Momo taking most of the armoured vehicles and leading them to cut off the MLA after they passed through the city of Shizuoka itself. Izuku and Mei meanwhile went north to ambush the infantry detachments.

Izuku went to set up an ambush around Mount Tekari while Mei did the same with Mt Kurohoshi, the command squad back at Aegis HQ predicting they would pass those mountains on their routes.

  
  


Izuku had set up his forces in an ambush position for the MLA in the forests surrounding the south side of Mount Tekari. He, several of the attached army officers and his contingent of Commando droids were hidden atop a cliff face overlooking a wide forest trail, wide enough for many men and even some vehicles to pass through.

This was the easiest accessible path through the area for any vehicles they had so he was almost certain they would pass this way.

The main portion of his forces were several kilometres further down the trail to avoid being seen.

The plan was for him, the Commando droids and the five squads of KX units under his control to ambush the MLA as they passed, striking their rear as the front came into contact with the main bulk of their forces. Four of the KX squads were on the ground with him but Hazard squad and their Commando attachment were still in the air suspended from the gunships.

They were both high enough in the air and obscured by thick canopies enough that Izuku was certain they wouldn’t be seen.

They waited patiently for close to two hours before they started to hear the sounds of marching coming from further down the trail.

Takei began to tremble slightly, Izuku reached out with a hand and gently grasped his shoulder. “Steady yourself Lieutenant.” he whispered, “This the first time you’ve seen combat?”

Takei nodded shakily, “Yeah… I’ve never fired a gun outside of training before.” he admitted.

Izuku quietly chuckled and patted him on the back a few times, “Don’t worry about it, there’s nothing to it.” he reassured him.

“I’m not scared about firing a gun, I’m scared about getting killed.” Takei whispered.

Izuku pulled his helmet off and looked him in the eyes, “I don’t blame you Lieutenant, none of us expected this to happen two days ago but here we are, this is what we signed up for and it’s what we’re going to do.”

“You didn’t sign up for this, PMC head or not, you’re still technically a civilian.” Takei responded.

Izuku just shrugged his shoulders as the marching got louder, “Maybe… but I wanna be a hero one day, I can’t exactly let this happen when I’m in a position to stop it.”

“A hero? Aren’t you quirkless?” Takei asked.

Izuku just nodded and put his helmet back on, “I am… but after what I’ve done over the past day and what I did after getting kidnapped, do you really think I’m not cut out for it?”

“Well… honestly you’ve done more to defend the country than practically anyone… so I’d say you were more than cut out for it… hell, after this you’re gonna get so many medals you’ll be able to melt them down and make a statue of yourself.” Takei decided.

Izuku snickered quietly as the first MLA soldiers passed beneath them.

“Alright Lieutenant.” Izuku began several minutes later, “You and your men are going to stay up here and give us what support you can… but keep your heads down.” he instructed.

“Wait what do you mean stay up here? Are you not?” Takei hissed in a hushed tone.

Izuku just grinned underneath the helmet, “No we are not.” he announced just as the sounds of fighting broke out from the front of the column.

Izuku looked down the trail to see the end of the column coming to a halt at the sound of weapon fire.

In unison, Izuku and every droid on the cliff pulled out a metal sphere, a thermal detonator, and primed it. Izuku stood atop the cliff and shouted “ATTACK!” before throwing the explosive below him, the other droids following his example.

The explosions ripped through the MLA rear leaving the few survivors in complete disarray.

With a loud battle cry, Izuku and the droids leapt from the cliff into the fight.

Takei and his men just watched with wide eyes and slack jaws. “That kid is fucking insane.” he exclaimed in disbelief.

As Izuku and his droids hit the ground they went into rolls, coming up sprinting into whatever cover they could find and opening fire. Izuku had pulled out his two heavy blaster pistols due to the relatively close range and high saturation of targets and he was putting them to good use.

The devastating explosions and suddenness of the ambush left most of the MLA rear either dead, severely wounded or attempting to flee.

Those that attempted to flee were quickly captured by the fast moving commandos, knocking them out and restraining them.

Izuku then led his detachment to charge into the main body of the MLA from behind, the hammer to the Korps’ anvil, while Takei and his men followed along from the top of the cliff.

The MLA were close to breaking already, only the discipline of the professional soldiers and officers within their ranks kept them from deserting on the spot. The front ranks of the MLA had been decimated as they ran into the wall of B1 and B2 droids on the trail and now they had Izuku leading the Commandos and KXs into the rear of the column.

After the initial ambush, there were no clever tactics or brilliant maneuvers, there were just two armies trapped in a trail with obstacles on both sides doing everything they could to kill each other.

Izuku received a report from Takei that several tanks were coming down the trail and would hit them from behind and so decided to activate his trump card, aka, Hazard Squad.

The pods they were inside were connected to the underside of the gunship with explosive bolts, detaching from the craft would fire the pods towards the ground, quickly reaching terminal velocity.

They weren’t just being used as a fast and shocking infil strategy, but as weapons themselves. The pods had each specifically targeted a tank and collided with them, practically crushing them flat underneath the Beskar plated drop pods being dropped from low orbit.

Then, the few remaining tanks soon found their crews being literally ripped out of their vehicles by Hazard Squad, their strength outmatching humans by many magnitudes.

At one point, Izuku found himself engaging in CQB with several MLA warriors and one rebel JSDF soldier. He was fighting furiously as the battle raged around him, lashing out with vicious punches and kicks, pummeling with the grips of his pistols and, after getting tackled to the ground by the soldier, pinning him to the ground and repeatedly stabbing him in the chest, his vest not doing all that much to help him.

Izuku couldn’t tell anyone how long they were fighting for, or how many people he killed, he quickly went into a primal state of adrenaline due to the battle and only came out of it as the sound of gunfire, quirk usage and lasers came to a stop.

His armour was scorched, scratched and covered in mud and blood. He himself was exhausted but only had minor injuries, mainly bruises from physical impacts through his armour and a few minor cuts where the joints in his armour were.

  
  


He rested on a rock for some time as his droids went about restraining all the MLA that had surrendered, of which there were a lot. Most quickly saw what way the tides were turning and surrendered rather than die for a cause they may not have been willing to die for in the first place.

Takei had joined Izuku and was just discussing how the other operations were going with his radio operator.

Eventually, Paradox arrived with a report for Izuku.

“Sir.” he greeted, giving Izuku a salute.

Izuku just waved a hand dismissively, “I’m not a general Paradox, you don’t have to salute me.” he informed the droid.

“I’m aware sir but you did create us, that makes you our leader by default.” Paradox replied.

“Fair enough, anyway, you have a report for me?” Izuku questioned.

Paradox nodded his metallic head. “Yes sir, all MLA captives have been secured and are ready to be escorted under guard to the closest loyalist military base where they will be held.”

Izuku nodded, “Good, what about casualties on both sides?”

“Well sir, in total, there were around 18,000 fighters and several dozen vehicles in this column, we have captured just under 12,000 leaving around 6,000 dead… we lost nearly 10,000 of our own.” Paradox reported.

“How did that happen?” Izuku asked.

“Well, the B1’s aren’t exactly the… most intelligent, agile, strong or resilient units among our number.” Paradox replied cautiously.

Izuku just nodded, “Fair enough, I’m guessing most of the casualties were B1’s then?”

“Yes sir… although we did lose two KXs from Hellion Squad.” Paradox informed him regretfully.

Izuku’s eyes widened, “Seriously? How?”

“That’s actually the main reason I’m here sir… we also captured this force’s leader… a man with a quirk that seemed to make the warriors around him stronger… but the most worrying part it… actually, you best come see for yourself.” Paradox explained, gesturing for Izuku to follow him.

Izuku pushed himself to his feet, slinging his carbine over his shoulder, and followed the Hazard Squad leader.

He was soon led to a restrained man, surrounded by a dozen B2’s all pointing their arm mounted blasters right at him.

Izuku recognised him from the briefing the previous night, he was one of the suspected Lieutenants of the MLA, a man that went by the name of Trumpet.

His quirk did indeed make those that heard his voice significantly stronger, a powerful quirk for a battlefield commander… but that wasn’t the worst part.

He was wearing armour.

Beskar armour.


End file.
